Programmed Lives: Second Stage
by Sanae
Summary: Ryosuke takes Project D to a whole new level by entering Keisuke and Takumi in GT300 while the two racers struggle with their love lives.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Initial D, Shigeno-sensei and the Kodansha Publishing Company do.

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Prologue_

At the beginning the pain wasn't so bad, just a bit worse than your average period pain. A heavily pregnant Akiko only woke up when, in addition to the pain, she felt a wet and sticky sensation somewhere underneath her legs. Her first reaction was to look at the right side of the bed she'd been sharing with Ryosuke for a bit more than a year. He wasn't there.

'The bloody car…' she complained with the little breath she had left.

Akiko's husband, a former great street racer, was now a part time doctor at her father's hospital and was currently preparing the car that his team would use in the Japanese Super GT300 championship.

With horror, Akiko realised that if Ryosuke was gone, Keisuke would be with him too. This meant that she was on her own in the house.

Making a titanic effort, she got up from her bed and, trying to remain as calm as possible, she picked up the phone and pressing the key to autodial Ryosuke's number, she put the phone to her ear. All she got was the busy tone and this made her do something she rarely did: swearing.

She then tried Keisuke's but her brother-in-law's phone wasn't even turned on. Thankfully, he had his voicemail activated so she left a message.

'Oh for pity's sake!' she muttered still fighting to remain composed.

She then dialled the only number she could think of: the hospital where both Ryosuke and herself worked.

'This is the Arakawa Hospital, how may I help you?' finally someone was answering the phone: the nurse covering the shift from midnight to eight in the morning.

'Hello, this is Doctor Akiko Takahashi, I'm going to need an ambulance to come to my house right away,' she said thanking the heavens that her work as a doctor had prepared her to keep a cool head even in the middle of an emergency.

'I see, could you please give me more details Doctor Takahashi?' the nurse asked testing Akiko's tolerance levels a bit too much.

'Oh yes: I think I'm going into labour,' Akiko replied while she hoped she didn't sound too hysterical. She probably did for the nurse seemed to lose the ability to speak for a few eternally long seconds.

'An ambulance will be right at your house, Doctor Takahashi. Is anyone assisting you at the moment?' the nurse asked and Akiko wanted to smack her for her stupidity.

'Nurse, if there was anyone with me right now, do you really think I'd be forced to call you myself?'

The nurse seemed to realise the magnitude of her mistake.

'No, of course not, I'm sorry,' she said sounding positively mortified.

Akiko couldn't help wincing at how extremely rude she had been to the poor nurse. In reality she was mad at Ryosuke for, in this order, not being there, not answering the phone and having got her pregnant to begin with.

After hanging up, she decided to get ready for the ambulance.

Getting downstairs was specially tricky, even more so because half way down the stairs she felt a piercing pain that forced her to sit down and wait until the it receded enough for her to stand up again and carry on walking.

She felt her swollen tummy with her hand and realised that something was wrong there. It felt abnormally tender and that made her realise something else. What was leaking wasn't her waters as she had originally thought: it was blood.

'Oh my God,' she whispered and with those three words, she lost all hope of remaining calm.

Someone rang the bell as she had finally made it to the living room and, making one last effort, she opened the door.

'Oh my God,' was the paramedic reaction seeing her copying her exact words.

'Let me help you,' said the other one, finally being kind enough to get Akiko in his arms lifting her all the way to the stretcher where he put her down as carefully as he could.

'How often are you having the contractions?' the kind paramedic asked as they got on their way to the hospital.

'I haven't had any. I just feel a lot of pain but no contractions,' she replied finally allowing herself to sound as weak as she felt.

'How far are you along?' asked the paramedic getting increasingly concerned.

'Just over the thirty eighth week,' she replied with just a whisper.

'Alright,' he said and then proceeded to check her blood pressure.

By the time they arrived at the hospital, Akiko was beginning to sweat. The pain was now almost unbearable and she had never wanted for Ryosuke to be with her any more than in that precise moment. Only that her husband wasn't even aware that something was very wrong with her and Akiko didn't even know when or if Keisuke would even listen to her message.

'Oh no…' she wept as they carried her towards the Obstetrics section of the emergency ward. for Akiko, using up the whatever was left of her lucidity, finally realised what was wrong.

'Akiko, it's you!' Doctor Megumi Yamaguchi said joining the paramedics in their sprint.

'Megumi…' she whimpered seeing her colleague and friend.

Doctor Yamaguchi held her hand and said:

'Akiko sweetie, don't worry, you'll see: everything will be fine.'

Akiko knew that Megumi was just trying to make feel better.

'Placenta…previa…' she managed to whisper, then she began to feel weaker and weaker and everything around her became blurrier, then Akiko fainted.

_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter One

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter One_

Ryosuke was not happy with the way the car was responding to the new settings. They had been working all night long and neither Keisuke nor Takumi had managed, so far, to get beyond their best lap times.

True, both Keisuke and Takumi were fighting with their own handicaps. For Keisuke, driving in a circuit was a whole new experience and, if Ryosuke wanted to be honest, he wasn't coping well with the change. For Takumi it was even worse. He simply didn't like the new car and both Ryosuke and Takumi's father were worried about it.

'What do you think Fujiwara-san?' he asked the famous street racer turned tofu maker.

'Not good,' the old man replied between two puffs of his cigarette.

'I know. What do you suggest?'

'Tell him to get back in the car. He's got to drive around the circuit till he dreams about it,' Bunta said.

Ryosuke was still adapting himself to having Bunta Fujiwara as an advisor for he was the most difficult person to work with he had ever met in his almost twenty five years of life.

'Alright. It'll be done.'

Meanwhile, Keisuke was taking a well deserved break. He liked driving but these massacring testing sessions were putting a strain on everyone in the team. To begin with, he hadn't even seen his girlfriend Kyoko in almost three days and, thinking that maybe she had sent him one of her text messages, the ones which made him smile and feel better about the whole thing, he got the phone out of his backpack and turned it on.

The display said that he had a new voicemail. That was strange: Kyoko never left him voicemails except if there was something very important she wanted to tell him. He realised that it was even worse than that when the automated voice told him that the number calling was the one from his brother and Akiko's home.

What he heard after that made him drop the phone back into the backpack, not even bothering to press the button to finish the call, as he ran as fast as he could towards his brother:

'Aniki, Akiko called me almost two hours ago: she said she was being taken to the hospital.'

His brother's face was a perfect picture of sheer horror.

'Aniki?'

'Crap,' he just said and then, he started running towards his FC.

Keisuke decided then to get out of his racing suit and follow his brother.

'Fujiwara-san, can you…'

'Yep. Go, don't worry,' the man said having as usual understood everything. Keisuke thought that, in more than one way, this man was even scarier than his brother.

'Thanks,' Keisuke said before taking off.

By the time Keisuke had arrived to the hospital, Kyoko, whom he'd called during the drive from the circuit, was already there waiting for him then, together, they both made it to the hospital's entrance.

'Hello I'm Dr Ryosuke Takahashi's brother, I'd like to know where his wife's been taken to,' Keisuke asked to the nurse at the reception.

'Ah, yes, she was brought in a couple of hours ago,' the nurse said and neither her tone nor her expression left much hope for any good news, 'I'll ask a doctor to come and pick you up,' she added.

A few minutes later they saw an exhausted looking middle-aged woman coming their way.

'Hi, I'm Doctor Yamaguchi, I take you're a relative of Akiko's?'

'Yes, I'm her brother-in-law,' Keisuke said, 'how's she?'

The doctor looked at Kyoko.

'She's my girlfriend and a good friend of Akiko's,' he said before the doctor could ask.

'Ah, I see. Well, unfortunately I have some good news and some bad ones,' she said instead.

'Good news first, always,' Keisuke said.

'Well, the good news is that your sister-in-law and your brother have had a beautiful baby boy,' she said allowing herself a tiny smile, then, getting serious again, she said, 'unfortunately, there were some unexpected complications during the childbirth and your sister-in-law lost a lot of blood. We've managed to stabilise her but we won't be able to know how bad it is until she wakes up.'

Both Keisuke and Kyoko looked instinctively for each others' hands.

'Please follow me, I'll take you to the ward but I don't think you'll be allowed to see her. Right now, only the husband is.'

'It doesn't matter. We still want to be there,' Keisuke said.

They followed her till she stopped outside the door for the room 304.

'Your brother is already with her, you may wait for him to come out in there,' she said pointing at two chairs placed just outside the door.

'Alright, thanks,' Keisuke said.

'No problem. I'm sorry I had to be the bearer of such bad news but rest assured we're doing all we can for her.'

Both Keisuke and Kyoko believed her, after all, Akiko was a much appreciated member of this hospital's staff, not to mention the daughter of its director.

They had just sat down when Keisuke's brother came out of the room.

'Aniki…'

Ryosuke looked down at his younger brother and, for a second, he looked surprised to see him sitting there.

'How is she doing?' Kyoko asked.

Ryosuke shook his head and said:

'Not well. She had a condition called placenta previa. Essentially, what happens is that the placenta detaches itself before the birth causing a certain amount of bleeding. The amount of bleeding and whether or not the blood remains inside the womb or not, varies: in Akiko's case, the placenta had detached itself almost completely and she was bleeding extensively and the pressure made the baby suffer…'

He seemed to be unable to carry on but then he continued:

'This made the doctors decide to perform a c-section so at least the baby would be okay.'

He stopped speaking and, just as Keisuke was trying to come up with something to say, Ryosuke punched the wall and shouted:

'Goddamit! I should have been there with her!'

This totally uncharacteristic display of fury scared both Kyoko and Keisuke. Neither knew what to say to make Ryosuke feel better but they were saved the trouble when a nurse came walking towards Ryosuke.

'Doctor Takahashi, do you want to see your son?'

Ryosuke, at first, looked at her as though as he didn't understand the question, then he said:

'Of course.'

Keisuke and Kyoko got up and followed both the nurse and Ryosuke towards the nursery where, through a window, they saw several babies inside their incubators.

'Yours is the one to the right, next to the door,' the nurse explained pointing at one of the babies then she added, 'Doctor Takahashi, your baby is fine. Even though he was born prematurely, he's actually big and developed enough to be out of the incubator but we prefer to take every precaution so, for the next twenty four hours, we'll keep him in there.'

'Thanks,' Ryosuke said looking at his newborn son who was sleeping peacefully.

'You're welcome and, congratulations,' the nurse said just before leaving.

Keisuke saw his brother nod.

'He's so cute,' Kyoko said earning herself a glare from her boyfriend.

'He's amazing,' Ryosuke agreed startling Keisuke.

'What are you going to call him?' Keisuke asked.

'I don't know. You know that Akiko didn't want to choose the name until the baby was born. I don't want to choose without her,' Ryosuke replied and then, giving his back to the window, he leant on it and said, 'I can't believe I missed the birth of my own son.'

'Aniki…'

'I'm going to sit with Akiko. Will you two keep an eye on him for me?' Ryosuke said.

'Sure,' Keisuke replied watching his brother as he started walking back to his wife's room.

'I've never seen him so devastated in my whole life,' Keisuke commented once his brother was out of hearing range.

'Neither have I,' Kyoko agreed.

'I just hope Akiko will be alright. I don't dare thinking of what would happen to my brother if she died.'

Kyoko frowned and, with her voice full of determination, she said:

'Let's not think about that. We need to be positive. I think that right now, what your brother needs the most is for us to be strong. For once we need to be the ones supporting him.'

'You're absolutely right,' Keisuke said then, looking at the baby, he added, 'he's a really handsome baby, isn't he?'

'Yes, he is,' Kyoko agreed.

'I can't believe this: I'm an uncle!' Keisuke said and Kyoko was happy to see that, despite all of what had happened, her boyfriend was still able to see something positive among it all.

Meanwhile, Ryosuke was sitting by his wife side when someone entered the room without even bothering to knock first.

'Doctor Arakawa,' Ryosuke said seeing his father-in-law.

'How is she?' he asked and to Ryosuke's utter surprise, the man seemed to be worried for real.

'She's had a placen….'

'I know that, I read the report. I want to know how is she now,' the doctor said interrupting Ryosuke at mid sentence.

'I don't know, she hasn't woken up yet,' Ryosuke said.

'I heard she was taken to the hospital by one of our ambulances. Where were you?'

Ryosuke couldn't miss the accusative tone Akiko's father was using.

'I was testing the new car,' Ryosuke said not even trying to come up with an excuse for his behaviour was completely unforgivable.

'Is that how you take care of my daughter?' he asked dryly surprising Ryosuke even more.

'Since when do you give a damn about her?' Ryosuke asked not caring whether he was being extremely rude to a man who, not only was his father-in-law, but his boss as well.

Doctor Arakawa remained silent for a few instants before replying:

'I know I've made lots of mistakes regarding Akiko but I've been trying to make amendments ever since she found out about her mother's death.'

Ryosuke didn't know what to say to that.

'I'm sorry I wasn't with her…' he decided to say.

'Same here,' Doctor Arakawa said.

Both men looked at each other for a few instants and Ryosuke was going to say something when a noise coming from Akiko's bed.

'Akiko…' he said getting up from the chair, rushing to her side.

Akiko slowly opened her eyes and, after allowing herself sometime to focus, she turned her head towards Ryosuke. He didn't like what he saw in those eyes.

Akiko whispered something but neither Ryosuke nor her father were able to hear it.

'What is it sweetheart?' Ryosuke asked noticing how Doctor Arawaka stayed away from his daughter's bed.

'Out,' he finally heard her say.

'What?' Ryosuke insisted not understanding.

'Leave,' she said and, albeit she was incredibly weak, she managed to convey enough anger through her voice for him to finally get what she was telling him.

'Y-you want me to leave?' Ryosuke asked, every word stabbing his heart like a dagger.

She simply nodded and turned her face away from him.

'Akiko…' Doctorr Arakawa finally said.

'You too,' she whispered then, closing her eyes, she effectively shut herself from the two of them.

'We better go,' Doctor Arakawa said grabbing one of Ryosuke's arms who, almost like in automatic pilot, got up from his crouching position to follow his boss out of the room.

'Let's go and see my grandson,' Doctor Arakawa said.

_To be continued…_


	3. Chapter Two

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Two_

Keisuke was shocked to see his older brother coming back to the nursery, even more so because he was accompanied by Akiko's father who was holding Ryosuke by his arm. He looked as if someone had just punched him in the stomach. This made both Keisuke and Kyoko fear the worse.

'Aniki, what's wrong?' Keisuke asked, even though he wasn't sure he wanted to hear it.

'She doesn't want to see me,' Ryosuke said sounding, if that was possible, even more distraught than earlier on.

'What?' Keisuke asked feeling really confused.

'It's just a phase. I've already told you that she's not herself right now,' Doctor Arakawa said speaking instead of Ryosuke.

'What's going on?' Kyoko asked feeling rather frustrated at not being able to understand anything anymore.

'Akiko woke up a few minutes ago and asked us to leave her alone. I was telling Ryosuke that it's not so rare for women who've just given birth to react that way. We have to give her some room if she asks for it,' the doctor explained.

'You don't understand: she's outraged! I've never seen such cold fury in her eyes before,' Ryosuke insisted.

'Like I said: give her some space and you'll see she'll be back to being herself in no time,' Doctor Arakawa said then, walking towards the nursery's door, he said, 'one of you two should call your parents to tell them the news. Now I'm going to check on my grandson.'

'I've messed up Keisuke,' Ryosuke said disconsolately.

Keisuke hadn't seen his brother acting more out of character ever since that week during which Ryosuke had believed he had blown it with Akiko.

'Aniki, I really think that what Doctor Arakawa is saying makes sense,' Keisuke said hating to be forced to agree with a man he despised.

Ryosuke looked at him and then shook his head.

'No, you all don't understand what's happening. After Akiko found out about the truth regarding her mother's death, I promised her I would be always by her side. I sworn I would not fail her the way her father had failed her mother. That was not even three months ago and, the first time I have the chance to prove myself to her, I fail her.'

Keisuke was about to reply to that when his phone started ringing.

'Shit, wait a sec,' he said while answering it, 'hello?'

He walked away from both his brother and Kyoko while he listened.

'Fumihiro, right now it's not a very good moment,' he whispered.

'What's happened?' Fumihiro asked worriedly.

'Akiko had some problems giving birth. The baby is fine but she's not doing very well at the moment,' Keisuke explained.

'Oh God. How's your brother?'

'Not very well either. Look, Aniki needs to be here now so, please handle everything for him in the meantime, okay?'

'Sure. I'm sorry to hear about Akiko, I really hope she'll get well soon,' Fumihiro said.

'So do I,' Keisuke said.

'Ah, what was it? A boy or a girl?' Fumihiro asked as they were about to finish the call.

'A boy, a very handsome one,' Keisuke replied proudly.

'Congratulate Ryosuke for me, will you please?'

'Will do. Bye for now,' Keisuke said then he headed back to where his brother was.

Meanwhile, at the circuit, Fumihiro put his phone back into the pocket of his jeans and walked back to where the rest of the team was.

'What's up?' Matsumoto asked.

'Akiko has had a baby boy. He's doing very well but, unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Akiko.'

'What's wrong with her?'

'I don't know. Keisuke didn't specify but I've never seen him being this much worried before.'

'What do we do with the testing session?'

'I guess we'll just carry on with Takumi,' Fumihiro said.

'What about the appointment with the sponsors?' Matsumoto said reminding Fumihiro about the meeting Ryosuke was due to attend that same afternoon.

'Shit! I forgot about that,' Fumihiro said then, after thinking about it, he added, 'we can't count on Ryosuke right now. He's got to be by his wife's side right now. I'll call them in the morning to ask them if they'd like to reschedule.'

'And if they don't?' Matsumoto asked.

'Well, if they don't, they don't. There's nothing I can do about that,' Fumihiro replied a bit crossly.

Not a good start for the team, Fumihiro thought while walking away from Matsumoto. It had taken them ages to get the new car built and delivered, only to find out that it wasn't anywhere near as performing as Keisuke's highly tuned FD.

Things were looking so bad that, at some point, Fumihiro even wanted to suggest using Keisuke's car for the championship. Unsurprisingly, Ryosuke had preceded him by tellling him that Keisuke's FD didn't comply with the GT300's regulations so they couldn't think of entering it for the races.

'It's almost four am, I'm going to do my deliveries,' Fujiwara-san announced, interrupting Fumihiro's thoughts.

'Alright,' Fumihiro replied distractedly.

'Get Takumi to take a break. He's been driving non-stop for almost an hour now,' Bunta said making Fumihiro smile. The old man, no matter how hard he tried, couldn't stop caring about his son's wellbeing.

'Sure. Thanks for coming tonight Fujiwara-san.'

'Whatever,' he just said before heading towards his Impreza.

Fumihiro's smile widened when he saw the way Bunta Fujiwara left the car park at the circuit: drifting all the way, in perfect Fujiwara-style.

His smile promptly disappeared when his mind went back to all the problems that needed to be solved for the team. He walked back to the garage where the mechanics were working on one of the spare engines.

'Guys, can I have your attention for a bit?'

They all stopped working, except Kenta who was currently keeping the time for Takumi.

'Ryosuke's not going to be able to come back for a while. As you all know, his wife was expecting a baby and she's just given birth to a baby boy who, I'm glad to say, is doing very well. Unfortunately she is not quite so well and Ryosuke will have to stay with her. I hope I can count on your hard work to make up for our leader's absence.'

'Of course you can,' Matsumoto replied, speaking on behalf of all the guys.

'Great, now, get back to work. Matsumoto, tell Takumi to get back in at the end of the next lap,' Fumihiro said before going back to Ryosuke's computer to check the data in it.

'Takumi, this is Matsumoto, get back in the boxes,' Matsumoto ordered speaking through the team's radio.

'Why? I'm not tired,' he heard Takumi say.

'You're probably not, but we need to preserve the car,' Matsumoto said smiling at the young driver's stubbornness.

'Alright,' Takumi replied and Matsumoto knew that Fujiwara wasn't happy with that order.

A few minutes later, Takumi was getting out of the car looking a lot more tired than he had tried to appear.

'Get some rest,' Matsumoto said handing him a bottle of water.

'Where is my father?' he asked looking around for his dad.

'He's gone to do his deliveries,' Fumihiro replied talking from the desk where he was working with the computer.

'And Keisuke?'

'He's gone with his brother to the hospital, Akiko's had her baby,' Fumihiro summarized not wanting to repeat the whole thing all over again.

'Ah, okay,' Takumi said and, without giving it a second thought, he walked towards the AE86 so he could get some sleep in it.

'Typical Takumi,' Matsumoto laughed.

'Yeah, he must be a lot more tired than he wanted us to believe…' Fumihiro said.

'That's right. He didn't even complain about the car like he always does,' Matsumoto agreed.

Fumihiro nodded. It was true that Takumi didn't like the car. Naturally, and since Keisuke refused to drive anything else, it was a Mazda, an FD3S specially built and projected for the GT300 championship. Unfortunately, Takumi was having a really hard time getting used to it and Fumihiro knew that Ryosuke was very worried about this.

That was the reason why Ryosuke had begged Bunta Fujiwara to join his team as an advisor and, even though at first Fumihiro was sceptical about the old man's reliability, now he couldn't have been happier.

Albeit Fujiwara-san was, at best, cryptic in the way he expressed himself, both Fumihiro and Ryosuke were learning tons of things about mechanics and racing, specifically, the psychological side of it and just by listening to the few words with which Fujiwara-san graced them every now and then, Fumihiro had learned an infinity of things about the mentality one had to have in order to be a winner.

Not even Ryosuke was at that level of understanding of the whole racing philosophy and, for this reason, Fumihiro and the whole team considered themselves blessed to have the old man in the team.

'Fumihiro-san, since neither Keisuke-san nor Fujiwara are driving the car, do you think I could take it for a spin?' Kenta asked startling Fumihiro who was lost in his thoughts.

'What?'

'I said if I could possibly drive the car for a while,' Kenta repeated pleadingly.

'Sorry Kenta but we're going to be working on it. Next time, okay?'

'Oh. Okay then, what should I do?' Kenta said trying, and failing, to hide the disappointment he felt.

'I don't know. Why don't you just get some rest?'

'Fine. I'll be in my S14 if you guys need me,' he said and, judging by the tone of his voice, Fumihiro could tell that the poor Kenta was feeling almost as helpless as Fumihiro did whenever Ryosuke wasn't around.

Back at the hospital, and needing to register the baby, Ryosuke disobeyed his father-in-law's orders and found himself knocking on the door of his wife's room but, since he really wasn't expecting an answer, he went in without having received permission to do so.

'Akiko,' he whispered walking to his wife's bed.

She was either asleep or pretending to be so so, taking a deep, steadying breath and without being too sure whether she would listen to him or not, Ryosuke said:

'Akiko, I'm not sure if you know this but the baby is a boy and we need to register him. I need to know if you have any preferences when it comes to names.'

Predictably, Akiko kept her eyes closed.

'Alright, I thought of a few of them myself…'

'I don't care,' he finally heard her say.

So, she was awake.

'Akiko…'

'I said I don't care. Do whatever you want, you always do anyway,' she said now speaking with a much firmer but still rather weak tone of voice.

'That's not fair,' he complained.

'Don't you talk about fairness!' Akiko cried before visibly wincing. She had probably upset her stitches and was now paying for it. Then, using whispering furiously, she added, 'leave me alone!'

Ryosuke briefly considered defying her but, seeing how useless that would be, he shook his head in defeat and left the room.

'How did it go?' Keisuke asked.

'Not well, she doesn't even care about the name we give to our baby son.'

'What are you going to do?' Kyoko asked.

'I'm going to the registry office,' Ryosuke announced.

'What are you going to call him?' Keisuke asked.

After giving it some thought, Ryosuke looked at Kyoko first, then at Keisuke and then said:

'Kyosuke.'

'Takahashi Kyosuke. I like it,' Keisuke sentenced.

'I'm glad at least you do,' Ryosuke said sombrely then he left.

_To be continued…_


	4. Chapter Three

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Three_

Keisuke opened the door in order to let his girlfriend into the house. He hadn't seen her in just over a week but he felt like it had been an age longer than that.

'Hey baby…' she started saying but, seeing Keisuke's serious expression, she said, 'what's wrong now?'

'The usual: Akiko still refuses to see anyone, let alone take care of the baby, Aniki is trying his best to do it for her and still sleeping in the guest room while coping with his job and managing the team. The testing session has been cancelled because we're having technical problems with the car yet again and I haven't been able to sleep properly in ages because poor Kyo-chan won't stop crying.'

'You're doing wonderfully then, huh?' Kyoko said sarcastically while hugging her boyfriend.

'Oh, yeah,' he replied in an equally sarcastic tone.

'You can add to that list the fact that we've definitely lost our potential sponsor,' Ryosuke said joining the couple at the hall.

'What?' Keisuke exclaimed disbelievingly.

'I've just talked to them. Unfortunately, the fact that I wasn't able to attend the meeting with them has made them think we're not serious enough. That's the reason why they weren't returning any of my calls.'

'That's bullshit!' Keisuke shouted, regretting it instantly since that woke Kyosuke up.

'Can you…' Ryouske began looking rather desperate.

'Of course, don't worry,' Keisuke said.

'Thank you.'

With that, Ryosuke left the house while Keisuke walked up to the nursery to get his nephew who was set on testing the limits of his lung capacity.

'Hey little guy, what's up?' he said picking him up as carefully as he could. The baby, probably recognising Keisuke's tone of voice, calmed down almost immediately.

'Keisuke I've never seen your brother looking as rough as he does now,' Kyoko commented while Keisuke took a seat on the room's sofa.

'I know. I'm trying to help as much as I can, we all are, even my parents and Akiko's father, however, if Akiko doesn't snap out of her current state soon, I don't think Aniki will be able to hold on for much longer.'

'She's not responding to anything, is she?'

'No, not really, it's been almost a month and she seems to be getting worse. Especially since she came back home from the hospital last week.'

'What's Ryosuke going to do?' Kyoko asked.

'I don't know but I think he should seek professional help.'

'Like a psychologist or something?'

'Yeah something like that. Akiko's suffering a very severe form of post-partum depression, or so Aniki says and that is something that she's not going to be able to recover on her own if we don't do something to help her,' Keisuke said.

'I don't get it. She was fine up to when she gave birth,' Kyoko commented.

'According to Doctor Yamaguchi, the fact that she found out about her mother's suicide while she was pregnant provoked a huge trauma to Akiko, however, for the sake of the baby, she tried to shield both of them from those negative feelings. Once the Kyosuke was born, and especially in the circumstances in which that happened, Akiko let herself be totally engulfed within that negativity and hasn't come out of it since.'

'I just wish we could do something,' Kyoko commented feeling very sad for her friend.

'Unfortunately, the main problem in these cases is that if we push her too much, we may make things worse.'

'Yes, but we can't leave her the way she is. I mean, Kyosuke surely needs his mum and, like you said, Ryosuke needs her too.'

'I know,' Keisuke said while looking at his nephew who, thankfully, had fallen asleep.

'I miss her old self,' Kyoko said then both remained silent.

'I wonder what Aniki is going to do with the team now,' Keisuke said after a while.

'What do you mean?'

'Is just that, right now, everything sucks so badly that I can't see how he's going to manage to fix it up.'

'Me neither. I think we have to trust him though,' Kyoko said.

'And support him. You know, in a way I'm actually happy things are this bad,' Keisuke said.

'Why?' Kyoko asked thinking her boyfriend was losing it too.

'Because, like you said at the hospital, this is my chance to prove to Aniki that he can count on me, after so long of me relying on him, now I can be the one he can lean on.'

'That's true,' Kyoko said.

'So, since I'm such a good guy, don't you think I deserve a kiss?' Keisuke asked with his cheeky smile coming back to his beautiful features.

'What? Here? In front of the baby?' Kyoko asked getting quite flustered.

'Yes. Here. And the baby is asleep,' Keisuke replied.

'Alright then,' Kyoko said bending down to kiss her boyfriend while taking care to not wake Kyosuke up.

She looked at the baby for a bit.

'He really is good looking.'

'I know, he looks like me,' Keisuke said only half joking.

'He does,' Kyoko confirmed.

The ringing of the phone interrupted the kiss while waking poor Kyosuke up who made a face that threatened a brand new crying session.

'Take him' Keisuke said handing her the baby.

He ran to the phone and picked it up.

'Keisuke here,' he said sounding as annoyed as he felt.

'Keisuke-san, it's me, Kenta. I wanted to tell you that we've managed to fix the car. Fumihiro's been trying to contact your brother but he didn't get an answer.'

'He's working now, probably can't pick up the phone. What does Fumihiro want to do?'

'Well, we're here at the track, if you want to come to do some testing. Fujiwara is on his way here.'

'Alright, hold on a sec,' Keisuke said then walked back to the nursery where he said to Kyoko, 'Baby, It's Kenta, he says they've fixed the car and that I'd need to go to the circuit to do some testing. Can you take care of Kyosuke and keep an eye on Akiko?'

'Sure. No problem,' Kyoko said.

'You're a star,' he replied then, getting back to the phone, he said, 'alright Kenta, I'll be there as soon as I can.'

A few minutes later, Kyoko was left alone in the nursery with Kyosuke looking at her with his two big curious eyes. She couldn't help but think that the baby did look a lot like Keisuke, even though it was much too early to tell for sure. Besides, since both Keisuke and Ryosuke looked quite similar (minus spiky bleached hair) one could have said that the baby looked like Ryosuke too which, after all, made a lot more sense.

'You're going to be such a heartthrob when you'll be older,' Kyoko said while allowing the baby to play with her the beads of her necklace.

Maybe because he had understood her or maybe he was having fun with the necklace, or it could be just that he liked her voice, but the baby curved his tiny lips to form what it probably was his first smile.

'Oooh!' Kyoko exclaimed almost overcome with emotion, 'you're smiling at Aunt Kyoko, aren't you?'

That gave Kyoko an idea.

'Let's go and tell your mummy how very pretty your smile is, shall we?'

Getting up from the sofa, she walked up to Akiko and Ryosuke's room and, knowing how pointless it was to knock, she opened the door.

'Akiko, it's me and Kyo-chan. Are you awake?' she asked seeing that, as usual, Akiko was lying in bed.

'What do you want?' she said gruffly.

Kyoko didn't allow Akiko's rudeness to dent her determination.

'I think your son has smiled for the first time,' Kyoko said enthusiastically.

'So what?' Akiko said with the utmost indifference.

'Akiko, come on, you've got to see him, he's so cute,' Kyoko tried again.

'I don't have to do anything. Leave me alone!' Akiko shouted scaring her baby in the process.

Kyoko remained silent for a few seconds, then she said:

'Alright, for now you win. We'll leave you alone but know this: we aren't giving up. We love you and we're all worried about you. Just keep in mind that there are people outside of this room who need you and who miss you terribly.'

'I don't care, just go,' she wailed.

Kyoko turned round and, as she closed the door, she heard Akiko beginning to cry.

Again, Kyoko thought for it seemed to her that, these days, Akiko didn't do anything else but weep.

She had just got Kyosuke to sleep when the phone rang again waking him up.

'Bloody hell people! There is a baby in this house!' Kyoko complained while going to pick the phone up.

'This is the Takahashi's,' she replied rather brusquely.

'Oh sorry. I woke Kyosuke up, didn't I?' Ryosuke's voice said.

'Yeah, sorry I didn't mean to sound so rude.'

'Don't worry Kyoko. Can you pass me my brother? I forgot to tell him something.'

'Er, I can't. He's not here.'

'Where is he?' Ryosuke asked, now sounding a bit more concerned.

'He's gone to the circuit,' she replied.

'What?' Ryosuke said now definitely worried.

'Kenta called saying that they had fixed the car and asking Keisuke to go for some testing.'

'What? How on earth did they fix the car?' he asked sounding puzzled, then Kyoko heard him gasp, 'Oh no…'

'What?' Kyoko getting increasingly anxious.

'I hope I get there on time.'

'On time for what?' Kyoko asked now positively alarmed.

'Kyoko, try to call Keisuke to see if you can reach him. He is to go no where near that car, do you understand me?'

'Sure but, what's going on?'

'Just call Keisuke. Oh my god…'

With that very worrying last remark, Ryosuke finished the conversation leaving Kyoko sick with concern.

Ignoring Kyo-chan's constant crying, she picked the phone up again and dialled her boyfriend's number.

'Yeah?' someone who clearly wasn't her boyfriend replied.

'Who are you?'

'I'm Matsumoto,'

'Ah, Matsumoto, it's Kyoko, I'm looking for Keisuke,' Kyoko said.

'He's started his run now. Can I take a message?'

Oh gosh.

'Tell him to stop! Stop at once!' Kyoko shouted, quickly forgetting her good manners.

'Why? What's wrong?' Matsumoto asked.

'Ryosuke asked me to…

She never quite finished the sentence for, just as she was about to tell Matsumoto about Ryosuke's orders, Kyoko heard some shouting coming from the background.

'What's going on?' she asked with her heart on her throat.

'Shit. Look, I need to go now. Keisuke's just crashed the car,' Matsumoto said then the line went dead.

Kyoko dropped the phone and started running towards the house's front door when she remembered two things:

There was a crying baby upstairs who couldn't be left unattended and there was a woman who wasn't in the right state of mind to look after her own baby.

'Crap! What do I do now?' Kyoko said feeling like she wanted to cry too.

_To be continued…_


	5. Chapter Four

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Four_

Keisuke knew it the minute he entered the first corner that something was horribly wrong with the car. The vehicle itself hadn't quite behaved the way it was supposed to from the very beginning but Keisuke had tried to ignore the whole thing because, since the very first day, that car had not been up to his standards.

However, as he cleared the corner, he felt something snap near the front wheel at the right side of the car, then, taken by surprise, he completely lost control of the vehicle and, before he could realise what was happening, he found himself crashing rather violently against the outer wall of the track.

Then, as the adrenaline levels started to drop, he felt something else: pain, an enormous amount of pain coming from somewhere in his lower leg.

'Shit,' he managed to say as, after unfastening his racing seatbelts, tried to pull himself out of the car.

His leg was clearly not responding to his orders to push him up and then, without needing the medical degree his brother had, he figured out what was wrong.

Keisuke punched the steering wheel trying to release some of the pent up rage and frustration.

'Keisuke-san!' he heard Kenta's anxious-laden voice outside the window and that made him look up.

He saw a few people running towards the car. One of them was his brother Ryosuke. What in the hell was he doing in there?

'Keisuke!' he shouted as he made his way through the people. His voice sounded even more strained than Kenta's.

'I'm okay. I think I've broken something in my leg though, he announced trying to sound as light-hearted as possible.

It clearly didn't work for Ryosuke, whose expression betrayed sheer panic. Keisuke couldn't remember a time when his brother had let his emotions show so obviously.

'Let's get you out of there,' Ryosuke finally said.

With the help from Fumihiro and Matsumoto, and with Kenta sobbing in the background, Ryosuke managed to get Keisuke out of the car making him lay on the ground.

'Aniki, I'm fine, seriously, Keisuke said while his brother busied himself with his leg.

'The hell you are! This ankle of yours is broken!' Ryosuke interrupted him in an uncharacteristically high pitched voice.

'Ah, that's why I couldn't move it, he tried to laugh it off.

'This is not funny,' Ryosuke insisted angrily.

'Fuck Aniki,' he snapped, 'I know it's not! I'm trying to keep things from going too overboard here you know?'

Both brothers looked at each other for a few seconds then Ryosuke reassumed his work.

'Let's get him to the hospital,' Ryosuke said having finished immobilising his brother's ankle using one of Matsumoto's long spanners.

About half an hour later, Keisuke sat on one of the hospital's stretchers with a brand new cast and a couple of signatures from the two nurses who had helped with the whole operation. One of them had written her phone number on it and Keisuke had to ask his brother for a bit of surgical tape so he could cover that. He thought it wouldn't have been a happy idea if Kyoko saw that.

'Aniki, someone should call Kyoko,' he said remembering that his girlfriend was waiting for him.

'No need for it, she's waiting for you outside,' Ryosuke informed him.

'Who's with Kyosuke now?' Keisuke asked.

'He's with Kyoko, when she heard about the crash, she left the house taking him with her to the track. Then one of the guys told her to come here instead,' Ryosuke explained.

'And Akiko?' Keisuke asked and Ryosuke looked at him for a while before replying:

'Tomorrow morning I'm taking her to a psychologist.'

'Aniki…'

'Keisuke, let's not talk about her now. I'll go and get Kyoko for you alright?'

'Sure. Ah! Please don't call our parents, I seriously can't put up with them right now,' Keisuke said pleadingly.

'Don't worry about that. Now just concentrate on getting well, alright?' Ryosuke said and Keisuke couldn't help but realising that his brother suddenly seemed a lot older than his almost twenty five years of age.

'You know me: I'll be alright in no time. I have been much worse than this, and you know it,' Keisuke said.

'I know,' he said and with a half smile, he tousled Keisuke's bleached hair.

Then, before neither of them could get too emotional, Ryosuke left the room so Kyoko could come in.

'Oh gosh!' she said seeing the cast.

'I'm okay…' he started saying but Kyoko hugged his head against her chest preventing him from saying anything else. Not that he minded tough, he quite liked how comfy it was in there.

He stopped enjoying himself when he heard her sob. He detached his head from the softness of her chest to look up at her.

'Hey, I'm fine. This is nothing. It was just bad luck that my foot got trapped between the pedals. Besides, I've been much worse, believe me.'

Kyoko just nodded.

'I didn't know what had happened to you. I wanted to rush to the circuit but I couldn't leave Kyo-chan so I decided to take him with me. I think I've scared the hell out of him the way I was driving the FD.'

'Nah, he probably loved it! He's a Takahashi, remember?' Keisuke said smiling at her.

'Yeah, that's true,' she agreed and smiled through her tears.

'Now, are you going to carry on crying like a baby or are you going to help me get up so we can go home?'

'Can you go home?' Kyoko asked him.

'The heck I'm going to let these freaking doctors to keep me here overnight!' Keisuke exclaimed.

'Hey, more than half of your family are doctors,' she said now laughing.

'Nobody is perfect,' Keisuke joked, 'now please, help me so I can stand up, will you?

Meanwhile, outside Keisuke's room, Ryosuke was holding his now sleeping son in his arms when he was joined by Fumihiro.

'How bad is it?' his right-hand man asked.

'Not horrible. He's got himself a rather clean fracture. It shouldn't take too long to heal and, thankfully it won't require an operation since the bone he's broken is not too thick.'

'That's good.'

'Fumihiro, it's over,' Ryosuke said with a very low tone, almost inaudible.

Fumihiro didn't say anything.

'Let's face it. One of our drivers is hurt, we still have no sponsor and the car is damaged almost beyond repair,' Ryosuke said enumerating the list of disasters that had just killed his dream even before it started.

'Aniki, don't count me out just yet,' Keisuke said from the doorway of his room.

'Keisuke, come on,' Ryosuke said. He appreciated his younger brother's efforts at cheering him up but, truth be told, he had never felt worse in his entire life. In just four months his life had gone from fantastic to being a living nightmare and Ryosuke felt as powerless as the baby he was holding in his arms.

Keisuke, leaning on his girlfriend and on one of the crutches he'd been given, walked closer to where his brother was.

'Aniki, I know things look bad now but someone really smart once told me that with determination and the will to never give up, one can overcome anything. No matter how desperate things may look, there is always hope.'

'Keisuke, turning my words against me is not fair,' Ryosuke complained smiling in spite of everything.

'Well, don't teach people things you don't want them to use against you later on,' Keisuke said jokingly.

Ryosuke remained silent for a while he was obviously trying to come up with some sort of strategy. Then, he looked at Keisuke, then at Kyoko and finally at Fumihiro:

'Get the team together tonight at my house. I'll think up of a way to get us out of this mess.'

'Now, that's more like you, Aniki!' Keisuke exclaimed and, by mistake, he tried to lean on his broken ankle, 'crap!' he shouted scaring a couple of old patients who were talking a walk around the corridors.

'Let's get you home,' Kyoko said laughing.

After getting Keisuke on the passenger seat of Kyoko's FD, the girl drove him back to the house. Ryosuke, having taken the rest of the day off, followed them with Kyosuke in his FC.

Once inside the garage, Ryosuke handed his son over to Kyoko so he could help his brother out of the car then, all four of them entered the house to find something completely unexpected:

Akiko was standing in the middle of the living room in her nightgown, her long hair desperately needing some brushing, her eyes full of tears and looking completely lost.

'Akiko…' Ryosuke said, his voice betraying the surprise he felt at seeing his wife outside of their bedroom for the first time in days.

Then, something strange happened:

Akiko turned her head towards them and, as though as she had finally found what she was looking for, her eyes widened and she brought her hands up to cover her mouth with them. She then ran towards Kyoko and, putting her hands delicately on Kyosuke's tiny head, she bent down to kiss him.

'My baby,' she whispered, 'my precious baby.'

Kyoko looked completely flabbergasted and clueless as to what to do.

'I was so afraid! I couldn't hear you and I got scared. I went to your room but you weren't there,' Akiko said still talking to the baby.

When Akiko tried to get Kyosuke from Kyoko's arms, Kyoko looked inquisitively at Ryosuke who just nodded. For what felt like an eternity, everyone remained as silent and as still as possible, all of them terrified that the wrong move or the wrong word would ruin everything again.

Releasing baby Kyosuke into his mother's arms, Kyoko waited to see what happened next as apprehensively as the two Takahashi brothers. Akiko just held the baby to herself for a bit, then kissed his little head and started talking to him:

'I've been such a horrible mother to you my baby. I'm so sorry I missed your first smile, I don't know what happened to me, I just, I just didn't want to carry on living. I don't know why. I'm alright now, I know you needed me and I wasn't there for you but I'm here now and I won't leave you again. I won't leave you the way my mother left me. I promise you this: I'll always be here for you.'

Kyoko felt a knot in her throat. She looked at both Ryosuke and Keisuke who looked too stunned for words. Finally, she said:

'Akiko…'

That made Akiko look up at the three adults in the room and, as though as she had just woken up from a long, troubled nightmare, she said:

'Oh Kyoko…I'm so sorry…'

Kyoko patted Akiko's left shoulder affectionately and said:

'Shush, don't worry. You're alright now, aren't you?'

Kyoko smiled warmly at her friend.

'Yes. I think I'll be,' Akiko said and Kyoko believed her because her voice was almost back to its usual sweet but firm tone.

Akiko looked up to Ryosuke and her eyes filled with angst and guilt.

'Ryosuke,' she said then she bit her lower lip.

Ryosuke couldn't wait any longer. He took three steps towards his wife and, making sure he didn't crush Kyosuke, he hugged them both as tightly as he could.

'I'll never leave you alone again. I'm sorry I did when you needed me most and I can only hope you'll be able to forgive me someday,' he said pleadingly.

'There is nothing to forgive. Besides, I'm sorry too. For everything I've put you through in the past few weeks,' she replied with her voice full of sorrow.

'Let's forget about the whole thing, okay?' Ryosuke said pulling away from her just enough so he could look at her but without letting her go.

She nodded.

'It's over now, isn't it?' Ryosuke asked.

She nodded again and, to prove it, Akiko smiled at her husband who smiled back at her.

'Let's take him back to the nursery,' Ryosuke said pointing at their baby son.

'Alright,' Akiko said and she followed her husband back to Kyosuke's room.

_To be continued…_


	6. Chapter Five

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Five_

As soon as Ryosuke and Akiko were upstairs and out of hearing range, Keisuke said:

'About bloody time!'

'I know, I thought she'd never get over it,' Kyoko commented.

'No, I mean, about bloody time they left: I've been dying to sit down!' Keisuke said making Kyoko laugh.

'Sure, laugh at the poor invalid,' he complained sitting down on the living room's comfy couch.

'Invalid my foot!' she said while helping Keisuke put his leg up and, realising what she had just said made her laugh even more.

'You're so cruel,' he said pouting and crossing his arms on his chest.

'I'm sorry,' she said bending down to kiss him then she added, 'now, aren't you supposed to take some painkillers?'

'Nah, I don't need them,' Keisuke said and Kyoko realised that he was probably trying to be all tough and manly.

'Come on, I won't tell anyone,' Kyoko said with a loving smile.

Keisuke seemed to think about it and then, he said:

'Alright then, just one.'

About an hour later, Keisuke was busy kissing Kyoko when they heard someone clearing her throat. Looking up, Kyoko saw Akiko who, having taken a shower and now being properly dressed, looked infinitely better than she had done before.

'Akiko…' Kyoko said literally jumping off the sofa looking flustered.

'Sorry for the interruption but the whole team is going to be here shortly,' Ryosuke explained having come down the stairs following his wife.

'Kyoko, do you want to help me out preparing some refreshments?' Akiko asked.

'Sure,' Kyoko replied, quickly recovering.

'Ah, Keisuke, have you taken anything for that ankle?' Akiko asked her brother-in-law.

'Yep, I've given him one of the painkillers he was prescribed at the hospital,' Kyoko replied for him.

'Traitor,' he mumbled making Kyoko smile sweetly at him and leaving Ryosuke and Akiko feeling utterly confused but, deciding that it was probably better not knowing, they ignored the whole thing.

'Alright, let's go then,' Akiko said walking towards her kitchen with Kyoko following her.

'Aniki, she definitely looks better,' Keisuke commented when both women had left the room.

'Yes, she does. We've been talking while we were watching Kyosuke sleep and she's told me that she's going to book herself an appointment with a therapist,' Ryosuke explained.

'But she's fine now, isn't she?' Keisuke said frowning.

'Yes but she still feels a bit fragile and she wants to understand what happened to her.'

'Alright. You guys are the doctors here,' Keisuke commented shrugging.

'I'm just happy that she seems to be back to normal. Also because this means that I get to sleep in our room again,' Ryosuke said smiling in a way that made Keisuke complain:

'Aniki, three words: too-much-information.'

Ryosuke just laughed at that and Keisuke couldn't help but smile too. Seeing his brother laugh like that again made Keisuke almost forget about the pain in his foot.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen and while they were busy preparing the food for the team, Kyoko kept observing Akiko.

'Kyoko, if you don't watch what you're doing, you're going to chop your fingers off,' Akiko said frowning with concern seeing Keisuke's girlfriend handling rather recklessly a very sharp knife.

'Sorry! It's just that seeing you back on your feet.'

'I know. It'll take some getting used to, I guess,' Akiko commented.

'Oh well. I'm just happy you're back to normal,' Kyoko said now paying attention to the cucumber she was cutting up.

'Not yet but I'm getting there and it's mainly thanks to you,' Akiko said.

'How is that?' Kyoko asked completely taken by surprise.

'Well, if you hadn't taken Kyosuke with you to go to the hospital, I wouldn't have missed his crying. I think that this triggered something that made me react and snap out of it. I'll find out more when I talk to a psychologist,' Akiko explained.

'I'm glad I could help out,' Kyoko replied without fully understanding Akiko's explanation.

'I'm grateful you did. Ah, Ryosuke has told me that he named our boy taking the first kanji from your name and the second from Keisuke's,' Akiko commented.

'Yeah, I hope you don't mind,' Kyoko said.

'No, I like it. Poor kid, his father misses his birth and then his mother is not even able to bring herself to care about what name he's given,' Akiko said making Kyoko look at her worriedly. Seeing this made Akiko add:

'Don't worry, both Ryosuke and I are now determined to do a much better job at being parents.'

'Kyosuke is a very good baby, you're lucky,' Kyoko commented.

'There are so many things I have to learn about my own son,' Akiko said and Kyoko couldn't help but notice the regret in her friend's voice.

'You have plenty of time ahead to do that,' she said hoping that it would make Akiko feel better.

'You're right,' Akiko replied nodding.

Half an hour later, the Takahashi's living room was full of people: Keisuke, Fumihiro, Matsumoto, Kenta and Takumi with his father Bunta plus the rest of the team were sitting on chairs or on either of the two couches, prepared to hear whatever their leader wanted to tell them.

'Feel free to eat as much as you want,' Akiko said coming into the room with yet another tray full of home made sushi.

'Thanks Akiko,' Fumihiro said smiling at her.

'You're welcome. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be upstairs feeding Kyosuke,' she said.

'Alright,' Ryosuke said smiling at his wife. Keisuke looked at Kyoko who, getting the hint, said:

'Wait, I'm coming up with you.'

Once they were gone upstairs, Fumihiro commented with a tone of voice low enough so only Ryosuke, who was standing next to him, could hear it:

'She seems to be doing better.'

Ryosuke nodded then, looking at everyone in the room, he started:

'I'm going to dissolve the team.'

'What? Ani…' Keisuke exclaimed but Ryosuke lifted his hand to make him be quiet.

'I'm going to dissolve the team temporarily. We're going to need time so Keisuke's foot heals and, while that happens, I'm going to actively look for a sponsor which, with a bit of luck, will be paying for a brand new car. I don't mind spending my own money on the team but, unfortunately, for the championship we'll need a much bigger budget.'

Ryosuke interrupted himself seeing Takumi lift his hand up. Ryosuke kept a straight face even though he wanted to laugh at the younger man: did Takumi think they were at school or something?

'Ryosuke-san, if you don't mind me asking, what kind of car do you have in mind?' the young man asked trying his best to keep his voice steady making Ryosuke amazed at the fact that even though Takumi had been working with him for a very long time, he still didn't feel at ease when talking to his team leader.

'Well, I was thinking of another FD3S.'

This provoked Takumi to make a face that lasted only a few instants but it was long enough for Bunta to see it.

'Do you have a problem with that?' Bunta asked his son.

'I don't know. Is just that…' Takumi started but Bunta interrupted him.

'Son, if you are a real racer you don't care about the car you drive. I could drive a camper and I'd still get all the way down Mt Akina before you'd have the time to get the keys to your car,' Bunta said taking his cigarette pack out of his pocket, taking one and lighting it.

Takumi looked positively mortified at being dressed down by his father in front of everyone.

'Takumi, I know you didn't like the old car but I can guarantee you that it didn't behave the way it was supposed to, we were very unlucky with it,' Ryosuke explained, 'however, if you have a problem with my choice of car, maybe you'd be happier driving for someone else.'

Keisuke looked at his brother as though as Ryosuke had lost his sanity but Bunta gave the older of the Takahashi brothers an approving nod.

Takumi shook his head.

'No, it's fine: I'll drive the FD.'

Ryosuke noticed the change on the young man's voice. Takumi was way too predictable when it came to his reaction when being challenged. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the only predictable thing about him. The rest of what went on in his head was a complete mystery to everyone.

'Alright then, so what we're going to do is take a long break, let's say two-three months. By then Keisuke's foot will have healed and I will have found us some sponsorship and a new car. People I want you to use this time to relax and get plenty of energy for, when we'll get back to work, it'll be non-stop till the end of the championship. Is that understood?'

Everyone nodded. Ryosuke noticed that Kenta didn't seem entirely happy about the whole thing but, for the sake of not raising any other controversies, he decided to overlook it. Maybe Keisuke could have a word with him later on.

'Okay, now let's enjoy the food my wife has prepared for us,' Ryosuke said.

A couple of hours later, with everybody gone, Ryosuke sat on the couch facing the one where his brother sat with his leg propped up.

'Wow Aniki, I don't think I'll ever complain about our old man again,' Keisuke said.

'What do you mean?' Ryosuke asked.

'Didn't you see the way Takumi's father treated him in front of everybody?'

'Yes and, if I were you, I'd pay a lot of attention to everything Bunta Fujiwara says to his son.'

'Why?' Keisuke asked, clearly not understanding his brother.

'Keisuke, Bunta Fujiwara is a very cunning person. He's been grooming his son to be a racer in body and mind since Takumi was a child. Everything Fujiwara-san says to his son is something that will help Takumi grow as a driver. If you want to keep up with him, you should listen to everything Fujiwara-san has to say.'

'Is that why you asked Fujiwara-san to join the team? To help me?' Keisuke asked.

Ryosuke nodded:

'That was my intention from the beginning. Only that I sold the idea to Fujiwara-san by telling him that I needed his advise in order to help me deal with Takumi's difficult personality,' Ryosuke explained.

'Aniki, I think that when it comes to cunningness, you're a very close match to Takumi's old man,' Keisuke said smirking at his brother.

'Not yet, but I'm learning a lot from him,' Ryosuke said.

'Now, that's a scary thought,' Keisuke commented making Ryosuke laugh.

_To be continued…_


	7. Chapter Six

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Six_

It had taken him a few days to gather up the courage needed to make that phone call but, at the end, it had turned up to be a lot easier than he thought. So now, Takumi was being driven to the Takahashi residence by Itsuki who, as usual, couldn't stop talking.

'Wow, now, this is what I call a house!' Itsuki said looking though the windscreen at the big house where Ryosuke Takahashi lived with his baby son, wife and younger brother.

Takumi just made a nondescript sound that could have meant anything.

They parked the AE85 down the lane that led to the house's garage where, Takumi knew, were kept the three Mazda the family owned, four whenever Kyoko Iwase was staying in the house too.

Both Takumi and Itsuki walked up to the house's front door and rang the bell.

'Good morning Takumi,' Ryosuke's wife Akiko said opening the door, 'Keisuke is in the living room.'

'Good morning,' Takumi replied and, looking sideways to Itsuki, he saw his friend blushing when Akiko looked at him, 'this is my friend Takeuchi Itsuki. Itsuki, this is Akiko-san, Ryosuke-san's wife.'

'H-hi…' Itsuki managed to stammer making Akiko give him an almost motherly smile.

'Nice to meet you, Takeuchi-kun. Do any of you two want anything to drink?' Akiko asked.

'Nope thanks, I'm alright,' Takumi replied. Itsuki just shook his head.

'Okay, I'm going upstairs now, make yourselves at home,' she said.

Itsuki followed Takumi all the way to the living room gasping at the nice, expensive looking furniture that decorated Ryosuke's house.

'Takumi, that's…'

'Yes, I know, it's a Ferrari steering wheel from the fifties,' he said talking about the object that hung from one of the corridor's walls.

'Wow…'

They found Keisuke watching the sixty inches flat screen TV placed at the Takahashi's living room. His brother Ryosuke was nowhere to be seen.

'Hey, you're late,' Keisuke complained seeing them coming in the room.

'I know, I'm sorry,' Takumi said.

'Oh well, let's go to the garage,' Keisuke said grabbing his crutches to help him stand up. Takumi briefly considered helping him but, on second thoughts, maybe Keisuke wouldn't appreciate the offer very much so he decided to stay put.

Walking as fast as he could, considering he had a broken ankle, Keisuke led them to the door that communicated the main house with the garage. His apartment was directly on top of the garage but, from the three rooms he had at his disposal, he only used his bedroom for he preferred to use his brother's living room instead of his own.

'So, there you go,' Keisuke said handing Takumi a set of car keys.

'Keisuke I appreciate what you're doing for me,' Takumi said taking them.

'Oh well, just be careful with my baby, if I find a single scratch on it, I'll kill you,' Keisuke said using his best gangster-style tone of voice. Seeing Takumi swallow visibly, he added, 'hey, I'm kidding!'

'Ah, right,' Takumi said feeling relieved.

'Seriously now, be careful, this is the only thing I own and…'

'I know. I'll treat it like if it were my AE86,' Takumi assured him very seriously.

'Right, now I'm worried,' Keisuke said frowning at Takumi.

'I meant…'

'Takumi, don't worry. I trust you, otherwise I wouldn't even dream of lending you my FD.'

'Right. I'll be careful, I promise,' Takumi said and, turning to Itsuki, he said:

'Let's go.'

Itsuki just nodded.

He was too busy looking around the garage walls where all sorts of tools and machines were carefully stored on the shelves. In the middle of the garage which, Itsuki noticed, was as large as his own house, there were parked Ryosuke's famous FC3S, to its right a blue 10AE and to its left Keisuke's yellow FD3S.

Walking out of the garage though the service door, Itsuki marvelled at the thought of having enough money to buy, let alone maintain, those three beautiful pieces of machinery.

'I thought your brother wasn't at home,' Takumi commented seeing the FC parked there.

'He's not, he's using the new car,' Keisuke explained.

'New car?' Takumi said.

'Yeah, he's bought an MPV so we can put Kyosuke's baby carrier in it,' Keisuke explained.

'Your brother's driving a van?' Takumi asked his voice expressing his shock.

'Yep, he's a family man now, remember?' Keisuke said smirking.

Takumi didn't know what to say.

Keisuke meanwhile pressed the button that opened the garage's gate and, seeing Takumi climb into the FD, he said:

'Hey Takumi, one more thing.'

'What is it?' Takumi said, feeling very odd while seating in front of the FD steering wheel. That car had Keisuke Takahashi written all over it.

'I know you're going to be using it to do the tofu deliveries but, please, I'm begging you, don't go and put one of those Fujiwara Tofu Shop decals on it, alright?'

Takumi laughed at Keisuke's worried expression.

'Don't worry, I don't think Dad's got any more of those.'

'That's a relief. Now, go before I have second thoughts,' Keisuke said and Takumi started the FD's engine and, being as careful as he could, drove it out of the garage and down the lane where Itsuki was waiting for him in his AE85.

Leaving a very concerned looking Keisuke behind, Takumi passed Itsuki's Toyota and started driving back to his hometown.

It had been awfully good of Keisuke to lend Takumi his beloved FD while his foot healed and Takumi, knowing how special this car was for the youngest of the two Rotary Brothers, vowed to himself that he wouldn't allow for it to get damaged in any way.

For this reason, the following morning, Takumi got up half an hour earlier than usual to run his turn of deliveries.

'I've finished loading the car, are you ready?' Bunta asked his son.

'Yep.'

'You've had a good idea borrowing this car,' Bunta said in what was one of the very rare occasions in which he praised his son.

'I think so. If I manage to master Mt Akina with this car, it'll help me being more comfortable with it,' Takumi explained his dad.

'Yep. That's right,' Bunta said and then, taking a long puff of his cigarette, said, 'come on, off you go…'

'Dad, aren't you forgetting something?'

'Nah, I can't give you a cup of water. This bloody car doesn't even have a cup holder,' he said shaking his head and mumbling to himself, 'no cup holder, and they all it a car.'

Takumi smiled at his father's ramblings and, starting the engine, he drove away.

The uphill of Mt Akina had always been the trickiest for Takumi. Not only because his car was underpowered when it came to climbing up the mountain pass, but also because of the tofu he had in the trunk.

Even when he drove his father's GC8, he still had the same handicap: the tofu. The lack of the usual cup of water made it even more difficult for Takumi was unable to tell whether his driving was too rough for the tofu so, for the first time in years, Takumi drove uphill at a normal speed.

He decided to leave the fast driving for the downhill when the trunk would be empty.

Driving at such low speed, not only made it difficult for Takumi to stay awake, but made Takumi's thoughts wander and soon he found himself thinking of a certain beautiful golfer who had been in his life for just over eighteen months.

Takumi briefly touched the cheek Maki slapped the first time they met, when she had mistaken him for the fake-Takumi.

He now found it almost funny but, at first, he had been really mad at her for slapping him and at the fake-Takumi for messing around using his name.

Now though, Takumi felt grateful because that loser had allowed him to meet Maki. He still couldn't believe that his girlfriend was the famous golfer Uehara Maki, a player respected by her much older and much more experienced rivals.

Takumi also felt grateful that, because of the unexpected events that had forced the team to take a break, he had now plenty of free time to go and see her.

That lack of time to see each other had begun to put quite a lot of strain on their relationship driving Takumi to a point where he really thought they would have to stop dating.

All of this had made Takumi very upset and, adding to this feeling the frustration he felt driving the team's car, had brought Takumi very close to losing it.

Oh how much he despised the team's FD! He had hated it the minute he had taken a corner with it. He just didn't like how it felt. It was even worse, if that was possible, than his father's Subaru.

His father, the cheek of him, telling him he would outclass him with a camper in front of everybody. That shitty old man!

He would show him and the rest of the team that he, Fujiwara Takumi, could be fast driving any type of car. He would master Mt Akina with Keisuke's FD, even if it was the last thing he did.

With his thoughts having reached the very machine he was driving, he had to consider a few things.

One, the car itself was way better than the one he had been driving for the team. To begin with, it felt a lot more stable and its engine seemed to respond better to his touch.

Of course, he still had to take it downhill but, so far, he had to admit that, uphill, Keisuke's FD was definitely better than his AE86. It was lucky he had never been foolish enough to challenge Keisuke to an uphill battle…

Another thing he had to consider was the fact that, being honest to himself, he didn't know how to get the best out of the rotary engine.

This was something he had been worried about ever since Ryosuke-san had founded the new team. During his time as a member of Project D, Takumi had always been able to rely on his car and, therefore, he had never been forced to change the way he drove for, one of the best things the AE86 had was that it helped him overcome his own limitations.

After all, he wasn't fond of his car for nothing. The AE86, besides being a legendary, highly tuned car, was also a large part of the secret to Takumi's undefeated record.

But his father was right, he had to get used to driving other cars and, even more importantly, he had to master going uphill and driving in a track if he ever hoped to become a professional racer.

If for Takumi the GC8 had been the breakthrough to a whole new level of driving, the FD3S was the challenge Takumi had to overcome so he could begin to consider turning his dreams into a reality.

After doing the last of the deliveries, Takumi turned the car round in the hotel's car park and entered the road facing downhill.

'Alright, let's do this…' he said aloud, talking to the FD.

Slowly at first but, picking up speed as the road's descent became steeper, Takumi started testing the FD's limits.

First, the brakes: he pressed and let go of the brake's pedal a few times, sometimes allowing the car to stop in the middle of the road, just to get an exact idea of the actual ability that the brakes had stopping the car.

After he was entirely sure of that, he moved on to testing the steering wheel, making sure he got a precise idea of how much he had to turn the wheel in order to make the car do what he wanted and how he wanted it.

Testing the engine's capacity was a bit trickier for, as usual, he seemed to have problems understanding the way the twin-turbo rotary engine responded to his commands.

All and all, it took him almost four times as long to get the deliveries done and to get back downhill but, when he parked the car near his father's tofu shop at ten past six in the morning, Takumi was happy with the night's work.

'How did it go?' his father asked him seeing Takumi enter their small living room.

'Not bad. I think I'm beginning to understand what I'm doing wrong.'

His father smiled at him and said:

'I knew you would. Now, go to sleep, you're supposed to be up again in less than an hour.'

'I know, you don't need to remind me,' Takumi said getting annoyed at his father's constant smothering.

'What a spoilt brat you are,' he said going back to watching the TV.

Takumi's last coherent thought before falling asleep was that, if everything went as he hoped it would, he would be able to return the FD to its owner pretty soon.

_To be continued…_


	8. Chapter Seven

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Seven_

The whole team was gathered around the new car. It had just been delivered that morning and something about it made everyone feel like this one was a truly special machine.

'Aniki, I think I'm in love,' Keisuke said without taking his eyes off the latest racing evolution of the FD3S.

Ryosuke laughed softly then, after clearing his throat, he said:

'May I have your attention? I have several things to tell you.'

Everyone, even Keisuke, stopped gaping at the car and directed their gaze towards their leader.

'Alright, first of all, I'm happy to announce that, finally, we have a sponsor. You know, some of you better than others,' he added looking at Matsumoto with a smirk, 'the alcoholic beverages maker Kirin. I've just signed an agreement with them to sponsor us for the next championship.'

Ryosuke allowed a short time for the team to celebrate the news then he reassumed his speech:

'The second thing is that, having secured enough funds, we're now officially a team which will take part in the next Super GT300 championship. I received a parcel yesterday with the stickers we need to put on the car and the number the federation has assigned us.'

Ryosuke looked at Takumi Fujiwara before saying:

'You all know that I wanted the paintwork of the car to be white, black and yellow to mix the colours of Takumi's AE86 and Keisuke's FD. Well, Takumi, you're going to like the number the federation has given us.'

Fumihiro passed him a large envelope and from it, Ryosuke extracted a white rectangle with the logos of both the Japanese Automobile Federation and the GT300 championship. In the middle of it and in italics, one could read the number 86.

'What do you think?' Ryosuke asked Takumi who, clearly in awe, managed to smile and nod.

'I like it,' he said.

'I thought you would. So, now that we have the car and both of our…'

The very loud noise of a truck's engine interrupted his speech making everyone turn around to see the source of the commotion.

'What the…' Keisuke said seeing that the truck was following the Takahashi's family MPV. Driving the van was Akiko Takahashi and next to her, Keisuke saw his girlfriend Kyoko.

The truck parked just in the middle of the small track's car park and the van stopped just a couple of meters from where the team was.

'Hello everybody,' Kyoko said getting out of the van while Akiko, who had done the same, was getting her almost four months old baby out of his carrier.

'Akiko, what's that?' Ryosuke asked his wife pointing at the truck.

'It's the Arakawa Group's contribution to the Takahashi Racing Team,' she said.

'A truck?' Keisuke asked looking confused.

'No silly, this isn't just a truck,' Kyoko said smiling happily.

'Let me explain,' Akiko said, 'I've seen that you guys always sleep in your cars or drive back home at stupid times at night risking an accident every time you do. I commented this to my father and he said it wasn't good for you so he decided to invest on the health of this team's members by buying this motorhome.'

'A motorhome? You've bought us a motorhome?' Keisuke asked dumbfounded.

'The Arakawa Group has,' Akiko said nodding.

'Ten berths and complete with every available optional,' Kyoko explained.

'You knew about this?' Keisuke asked his girlfriend.

'Oh yes, she acted as our advisor,' Akiko replied.

'This is amazing,' Ryosuke said and, judging by the comments from the rest of the team, everyone agreed with their leader.

'There is a catch though. We've only hired the driver to deliver it here. Can any of you drive a truck? If not you'll have to recruit a driver,' Akiko asked.

'Matsumoto and I can,' Tomiguchi said, he was the former personal mechanic for Keisuke's FD, now part of the technical staff.

'Alright then, I'll go and tell the driver he can leave,' Akiko said then, turning round, she said to Kyoko, 'give them the other surprise, will you please?'

'Sure,' she said and, walking back to the van, the girl went to the trunk and got out of it several bags. Taking two of them, she left the rest by the car.

'This one is yours,' she said to Takumi after having checked its contents, 'and this one, my love, is yours,' she said to Keisuke, 'the rest of you can go and get the rest yourselves: all bags should have a nametag, look for your name on it,' she explained.

'Wow…that's…' Takumi said taking out of the bag his brand new, black, white and yellow, racing suit which had a 'T. Fujiwara' embroidered on its belt and Kirin's logo written on the chest. On the back, one could read 'Takahashi Racing' in streamlined italic black characters.

'What do you think?' Kyoko asked both of the Takahashi brothers.

'They're even better than I imagined,' Ryosuke said admiring the suit his brother had in his arms.

'Nice, really nice,' Bunta Fujiwara said, examining his son's suit, 'hey, where's mine?' he asked half-jokingly.

'For you, Ryosuke and Fumihiro, we have this,' Akiko said handing her husband a bigger bag.

Ryosuke took from it three parcels containing two pieces of clothing each: a white shirt with Takahashi Racing on the back and Kirin embroidered on the top right side of the shirt's front. On the left side, there was a pocket with his name embroidered on the top edge of it. The other piece of clothing was a black, white and yellow jacket which copied the design of the racing suits.

He handed the two parcels to Bunta Fujiwara and to Fumihiro, then proceeded to try the jacket on.

'What do you think?' Ryosuke asked his wife.

'I like it,' she said giving him a peck on his cheek, then she whispered, 'and I'll tell you tonight just how much I like it.'

Smiling, Ryosuke bit his lower lip and said, 'that's a promise Doctor Takahashi.'

Akiko just laughed.

Half an hour later, Kyoko took a picture of the whole team clad in their new clothes with the FD3S, complete with its new stickers, in front of them.

After that, and following Ryosuke's orders, the mechanics got back to their working overalls while Takumi and Keisuke took it in turns to try out the new car.

'I like it so much,' Keisuke said smiling while getting out of the FD.

Takumi climbed into it so he too could do his run.

'Can I try it later?' Kenta asked eagerly.

'Not today Kenta,' Ryosuke said, 'it's important we let our drivers get used to it quickly. The championship starts next month and we have already wasted too much time.'

Kenta did his best to hide his disappointment.

'Wow Aniki! Look at that!' Keisuke exclaimed pointing at a certain point of the circuit where Takumi was tackling a corner.

'Now he's doing it as he should!' Ryosuke said nodding with satisfaction.

'It seems that all the training with my FD paid off.'

'What? Keisuke-san, did you lend him your car?' Kenta asked looking at Keisuke with his eyes wide with surprise.

'Yes, I had broken my ankle, remember?' Keisuke explained then, he turned round to face Fumihiro who was timing Takumi, 'how is he doing?'

'Great. He's just cut off a tenth of a second from your first sector's best time,' Fumihiro replied with a smile.

'Shit, bloody punk! I'll teach him a lesson when he gives the car back to me,' Keisuke said and, the way he looked like, Ryosuke knew that his two drivers were back at being what they were: each other's best enemies.

'What do you think?' Ryosuke asked Takumi as soon as he had got out of the car.

'It handles a bit differently than Keisuke's FD.'

'That's the aerodynamic bodywork. Keisuke's FD is configured for street driving. This one is purely built for circuit racing. It's bound to feel different that way but, tell me, what do you think of the engine?'

'I think we understand each other,' Takumi said using the over simplistic language he always used when talking about cars.

'I'm glad to hear that,' Ryosuke said.

'Well, it seems like Keisuke and the engine understand each other better than you,' Bunta said.

'What?' Takumi asked.

'He's just knocked a full second off your best lap time,' Fumihiro explained.

Takumi looked at first disappointed then, getting all his determination back, he said:

'I'll show him in the next run…'

Everyone laughed at that and Takumi was left feeling all confused.

They ended the training session in extremely high spirits. Both of their drivers kept beating each other's records and, at the end, they even managed to set a whole new record for that circuit, one that, Ryosuke was told, had stood unbeaten for over five years.

'Bloody hell! We've got a DVD player in here!' Keisuke said busy exploring their new motorhome.

'I'm going to see the bedroom,' Takumi said doing the same.

'So you like it then?' Akiko asked from the door that gave access to the motorhome.

'Oh yes. Thanks sis, this is great!' Keisuke said happily.

'I'm glad you do,' she replied.

'I take things with your father are much better these days,' Ryosuke asked joining her.

'Yes, they are. I think he's even considering that a woman can actually make a good doctor,' she joked, 'no, seriously, he's being great.'

'So, soon you'll be going back to work then,' Ryosuke asked.

'Not yet. I need to wait for Kyosuke to be old enough to go to the kindergarten first.'

'We could hire a babysitter you know,' Ryosuke said, knowing that his wife was actually quite eager to reassume her work at the hospital.

'No, you know what I think about having hired help at home,' she said shaking her head.

'Alright, it's up to you,' he said then, talking to his brother and Takumi, he said:

'You two, get out of there so we can lock it up.'

'We're leaving already?' Keisuke asked getting out of the motorhome followed by Takumi.

'Yes, everybody listen:' he said to the team who had just finished packing up for the day, 'I'd like to celebrate the re-birth of our team so everyone who can come is invited to dinner at our home.'

This provoked much rejoicing from the team except from one of them.

Kenta walked up to his boss and said:

'I can't make it. I'm sorry.'

'Ah, it's alright. See you tomorrow morning, eight o'clock sharp, okay?' Ryosuke said.

'Sure,' he said and, not even greeting Keisuke, he walked up to where his S14 was parked, climbed in and drove away.

'Where's he going?' Keisuke asked.

'He said he couldn't make it for dinner and left,' Ryosuke said.

'Ah, the little bugger finally has got himself a girlfriend!' Keisuke said laughing.

'Probably,' Ryosuke said then he added, 'let's go.'

That night at the Takahashi residence the whole team indulged themselves with the great food that Akiko and Kyoko prepared for them.

To the delight of many of the members of the team, being sponsored by Kirin meant that the company had sent them quite a few boxes of free beer which were now stored in the garage.

'Guys, easy with the drinking, we've got work to do tomorrow,' Ryosuke reminded them.

'I'm not sure they've heard you baby,' Akiko said joining her husband.

'Oh well, they'll have to deal with the hangover then,' he said shrugging.

Predictably enough, the next day some of the mechanics were nursing a gigantic headache. Ryosuke was absolutely inflexible when it came to delaying the start of the training session so, just before eight o'clock, the different team members started showing up.

Ryosuke was getting his laptop out of the bag when he saw Fumihiro running towards where he and Keisuke were.

'Ryosuke, you're not going to believe this,' Fumihiro said looking extremely anxious.

'What's up?' Ryosuke asked apprehensively for Fumihiro rarely panicked without a very good reason.

'The car Ryosuke, our new car is gone.'

_To be continued…_


	9. Chapter Eight

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Eight_

This couldn't be happening, Ryosuke thought after hearing the news. Everything was going so well and now this…

'How did they get in?' he heard Keisuke ask.

'This is the weird bit, it doesn't look as though anyone broke in and entered. The door was locked, exactly as I left it last night,' Fumihiro explained sounding every bit as disconsolate as Ryosuke felt.

'Alright, let's keep a cool head about this. Gather all the team here,' Ryosuke ordered.

Fumihiro called everyone and Ryosuke realised that two people were missing.

'Fujiwara, where is your father?' Ryosuke asked noticing that Takumi's old man wasn't there.

'He went to do the deliveries this morning and by the time I woke up, I guess he had just gone to sleep because his car was parked outside, he'll probably show up later,' Takumi explained and Ryosuke just nodded.

'And Kenta?' he asked to the guys.

'I haven't seen him since last night when we left for your house Ryosuke,' Matsumoto said.

'I've just given him a call Aniki, he's not answering to his mobile,' Keisuke added.

'And his car is here,' one of the guys said.

'Where?' Ryosuke asked.

'I've seen it parked just outside the circuit.'

'He does have the keys for the garage,' Fumihiro added sombrely.

To everyone's horror, it was becoming clearer to everyone that Kenta must have taken the car, but there was no one feeling more upset than Keisuke, after all, Kenta had been his protégé ever since the younger man had joined the Red Suns.

'I'll go and look for him Aniki,' Keisuke said.

'Alright, can I have some volunteers to help my brother looking for Kenta?' Ryosuke asked and everyone offered themselves to help with the search. Then, speaking to his brother, he said:

'Keisuke, if we don't find him within the next hour I'll have to report the theft to the police.'

Keisuke didn't say anything. He couldn't believe it. Keisuke knew that Kenta had been a bit upset the previous day but again, Kenta was known for being a rather sensitive guy and, therefore, Keisuke hadn't given too much importance to it.

He now wished he had paid more attention to Kenta and, he hoped that his friend hadn't done anything stupid like crashing the car for, if he did, there would be no hope in hell for the team to get another car made in time for the championship, much less a car as good as that one.

'Aniki, you stay here, if I find him I'll give you a call.'

'Alright,' Ryosuke said.

Keisuke had been driving around the area surrounding the circuit with his FD for almost half an hour when he saw something strange at a nearby park.

There was a bump covered by a small blanket lying on one of the park's benches and, at first, Keisuke thought it was a poor homeless guy trying to get some sleep, then, he saw some bleached, straight hair pocking out the blanket. That kind of hair could only belong to his friend Kenta.

Parking the FD he walked towards the bench.

'Kenta, hey Kenta, wake up!' Keisuke said shaking him by the shoulder.

Kenta woke up with a start and mumbled:

'Keisuke-san…'

'What are you doing here man?' Keisuke asked him putting his hands on his hips.

'I didn't feel like going home,' Kenta explained his voice sounding as miserable as he looked.

'Kenta, where's the car?' Keisuke said deciding to go straight to the point.

'I left the S14 parked outside the circuit,' Kenta repeated looking confused.

'Who's talking about the S14? I mean our FD mate, where is it?' Keisuke asked and, his tone of voice became so menacing that made Kenta stand up.

'I really don't know what you're talking about Keisuke-san,' Kenta said now looking positively terrified.

'Don't try to fool me Kenta, we know you've taken it!' Keisuke warned him.

'WHAT?' Kenta shouted springing up from the bench taking Keisuke by surprise.

'The car's gone and…' Keisuke started and Kenta, for the first time in his life, interrupted the man who he almost worshipped:

'And you think I've taken it?'

Keisuke had never seen him like that before: Kenta looked positively livid with fury.

'I…'

'FUCK OFF!' Kenta shouted turning round and starting to run.

It took Keisuke just a few instants to react and run after Kenta and it took him even less than that for the FD's driver to catch him.

Taking him roughly by his arm, Keisuke turned Kenta round so he would face him.

'You piece of…' Keisuke shouted but stopped seeing that Kenta's eyes were full of tears, 'Kenta…'

Kenta tried, in vain, to remove his arm from Keisuke's grasp. Finally, Keisuke felt his friend going limp as he forced himself to relax.

'Alright, so, you didn't take the car,' Keisuke said.

Kenta shook his head, still unable to speak.

'Then, what's wrong with you?' Keisuke asked, letting go of Kenta's arm and replacing his angry look with a concerned one.

Kenta looked at him for a short while and Keisuke could sense the battle within him. Whatever it was it was pretty clear that Kenta had a lot of trouble talking about it.

'I'm tired,' he finally said.

'Tired?' Keisuke asked suddenly confused.

'No one gives a damn about me,' Kenta explained miserably.

'Hey, that's not true,' Keisuke said.

'It is,' Kenta insisted then, he lowered himself to the ground so he could sit down cross-legged.

'Why do you think so?' Keisuke said sitting down by his side.

'Because it's true. When I met you, all I ever wanted to do was to become a driver as good as you and it was the happiest day of my life when Ryosuke-san allowed me to join the Red Suns. I thought that my dream of being a great street racer could actually come true…'

'It still can,' Keisuke said but Kenta shook his head.

'No, I've reached my limits. It's not a question of money or getting a better car. It's just that I'm not good enough.'

'That's bullshit, Kenta.'

'Keisuke-san, you're kind to me as always,' Kenta said with a sad smile then, he added, 'but I know that I'm never going to be as good as you or Fujiwara. I thought though that by joining Project D first and now this team I would still be able to race but, so far, I have never had a chance…'

Keisuke finally saw where Kenta was trying to get to.

'Kenta, I'm not going to lie to you: you're probably never going to take part in an official GT300 race but you can still race on the streets where the real fun is and, besides, we need you in the team, don't you think we don't appreciate the work you do?'

'Yeah right, running errands, ordering parts, what an important job!' Kenta laughed bitterly.

'Kenta, I'm going to tell you something Aniki told me once: never underestimate the seemingly unimportant people, or something like that...'

'What?' Kenta said clearly not understanding.

'I'll put it this way: if you didn't get all those errands done, the mechanics wouldn't have the parts we need, the car wouldn't run and we couldn't drive it and, without drivers to manage, Fumihiro and Aniki couldn't do their jobs either. So, in my opinion, what you do it's essential for the smooth running of our team…'

'You think so?' Kenta said, his eyes shining and not because of the recently shed tears.

'I know so,' Keisuke said with one of his best smiles, 'boy, what would I do without the coffee you get me first thing in the morning? I'd go and crash the car all the time…'

Keisuke's laughter ended up being contagious and Kenta started laughing too.

'The thing is,' Keisuke said getting serious again, 'if you haven't stolen the car, who has?'

'I don't know,' Kenta said looking suddenly worried.

'Either way, we need to go back to the circuit, Aniki needs to go and report the theft to the police.'

Kenta nodded and, getting up, he put his hand forth and offered it to Keisuke.

'Thanks,' Keisuke said taking Kenta's hand and allowing him to help him up.

They walked quietly for a few seconds and then Kenta broke the silence:

'Keisuke-san, I'm sorry for swearing at you.'

Keisuke looked at him and said:

'Nah, forget it. Besides, I quite like that wild side of yours. You should use it more often, mind you, not against me or I'd have to hurt you…'

'I'd never dream of it,' Kenta said looking rather scared.

When they arrived at the circuit they saw two things:

One, the car was back.

Two, everyone seemed as though as they were about to faint with either surprise, relief or a mix of the two.

'What's going on?' Keisuke asked his brother.

'You won't believe this,' Ryosuke said still looking very much astonished.

'Try me,' Keisuke said, ready to believe anything Ryosuke told him. Even that the car had been taken by some alien race.

'Fujiwara-san took the car. Apparently he wanted to "go for a spin" and has given us a list of things that, according to him, need to be changed in the car to make it even faster.'

'What?' Keisuke asked now looking even more astounded than his brother. Kenta limited himself to remain open-mouthed and unable to speak.

'Yeah, he said that since we asked him to be an advisor, he was just doing his job,' Fumihiro said shaking his head in profound disbelief.

'Where's he now?'

'The motorhome, he said he was tired and went to get some sleep,' Ryosuke replied.

Keisuke didn't know what to say to that.

'That shitty old man,' Takumi said, clearly still angry at his father, while walking towards them, 'I'm so sorry Ryosuke-san.'

'Don't worry Takumi, it's not your fault, and besides, the things he's suggesting make a lot of sense to me. We're going to try them,' Ryosuke said patting a mortified looking Takumi on his shoulder.

So, after the team had recovered from this latest shock, the mechanics started implementing the changes Bunta had suggested and, to everyone's surprise, the car did perform a whole lot better.

'So I was right, wasn't I?' Bunta said coming into the team's garage still yawning.

'Yes, you were Fujiwara-san,' Ryosuke said but, for the sake of the team's mental health, was forced to add, 'Fujiwara-san, we're all extremely happy to have you here, we really are but, in the future, should you want to take the car for another spin and you can do so whenever you want, you should please try to need to warn us beforehand, alright?'

'Whatever,' he said and then walked away.

Ryosuke shook his head while Fumihiro commented after witnessing the entire exchange:

'He's nuts.'

Ryosuke silently agreed but, with a smile, he said:

'But he's a genius.'

'Look who's talking,' Fumihiro said grinning back at his long time friend.

Ryosuke was trying to come up with something to say when his mobile phone started ringing.

'Ryosuke here,' he said answering and, whatever he was hearing, was bad enough to wipe the smile off his face, 'don't worry, I'll be with you as soon as I can...'

'What's up?' Fumihiro said as soon as Ryosuke pressed the button to finish the call.

Ryosuke gave him a very grave look before replying:

'I need to go to the hospital: Akiko's father's had a heart attack…'

_To be continued…_


	10. Chapter Nine

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Nine_

Ryosuke was getting into his FC when he saw Keisuke running towards him.

'Hey Aniki, Fumihiro just told me,' he said looking almost as worried as Ryosuke himself was.

Ryosuke nodded and said:

'I'm off now.'

'Hey, I'm coming with you,' Keisuke said and, not even waiting for his brother's permission, he climbed into the FC's passenger seat.

By the time they arrived at the hospital, Ryosuke found Akiko sitting in the waiting room of the cardiology ward.

'Hey baby,' he said softly.

She lifted her head to look at him and both Ryosuke and Keisuke were shocked to see such an intense pain in them. Getting up, she literally threw herself in Ryosuke's arms who, reacting quickly, hugged her tightly.

'Shush, it's going to be alright,' he said caressing her back while kissing her on the top of her head.

'Why now?' she asked with a tiny voice muffled because she was speaking with her face pressed against his chest.

'Whatever happens, we're here with you,' Ryosuke said firmly, 'who's with him?' he asked.

'Your father,' Akiko sobbed looking up at him, twin tears falling down her cheeks.

'That's good. He's the best cardiologist of this region,' Ryosuke said and even if he had his differences with his father that was an objective opinion.

'Yeah, he's annoying but he's good at what he does,' Keisuke agreed.

'I'm glad you think so,' Keisuke heard his father's sarcastic remark coming from somewhere behind him.

None of them had noticed him coming into the room.

'How is Doctor Arakawa doing?' Ryosuke asked so he could avoid a new confrontation between his father and his younger brother.

Sousuke looked at his oldest son and then at Akiko who was quickly wiping off her tears and trying to regain some resemblance of composure.

'I gather I can talk freely?' he asked her.

'Of course,' Akiko managed to reply with a remarkably even voice, even though a knot was threatening to choke her.

'He's not well. Apparently he collapsed in his office and, had it not been because his secretary heard him fall over, he would have not survived. Getting medical treatment so soon has increased his chances of recovery exponentially. However, Akiko, it is more than likely that your father will not be able to carry on doing his job.'

Akiko gasped and Ryosuke was forced to tighten his grip on her shoulders so she wouldn't fall for her knees seemed to give up on her. Not that Ryosuke felt any better hearing his father confirm his worst fears:

'This means that the clinics are going to be left without anyone to manage them,' Doctor Takahashi said then, looking again at his son, he added, 'I think you'll have to start taking care of the family business right now.'

'Absolutely not!' Akiko suddenly exclaimed overlapping Keisuke's own protests.

Doctor Takahashi looked at his daughter-in-law and asked:

'What do you mean?'

'These two hospitals are owned by my family. The Arakawa founded them four generations ago and, if anyone is going to take charge here, that'll be me.'

Ryosuke and Keisuke just stood there saying nothing, Ryosuke understanding that this was one of those times when he had to let his wife do the talking.

'Don't be ridiculous! What kind of experience do you have at managing a hospital as big as this?' Doctor Takahashi said.

'The same one your son has: none. You were going to train him to run your hospital but you gave him a five year gap before that training started. What I'm asking you, Doctor Takahashi, is to please train me instead.'

'This is the racing team again, isn't it?' Doctor Takahashi asked his son.

'Yes and we can't quit it now: I've just signed a contract with Kirin to sponsor us,' Ryosuke explained.

Keisuke saw that his father was quickly losing field and that soon, he'd have to give in.

'I'm a very hard instructor, you know that?' Doctor Takahashi said to Akiko.

'Harsher than my father?' she challenged him.

'Maybe harsher,' he said not sounding very convincing.

'I'll cope,' Akiko said shrugging her tiny shoulders.

'Fine then, this is going to be fun,' Doctor Takahashi said his tone sending shivers up Keisuke's and Ryosuke's backs for their father had just sounded anything but funny.

'It will be,' Akiko said keeping her head proudly up and her voice full of determination.

'Alright, while we wait for your father to wake up, show me around so I can get an idea of how this hospital is run,' Dr Takahashi said and, something in his tone of voice had suddenly changed but Ryosuke couldn't identify it.

'Sure,' Akiko said following Doctor Takahashi out of the room almost happy for the sudden opportunity to engross herself with something that wasn't thinking about her father's condition.

Keisuke looked at his brother and then at the door through which both his father and his sister-in-law had disappeared.

'Let me get this straight: Akiko has just argued with father and has won the argument?'

'Yes,' Ryosuke replied still shocked at his wife's latest stunt.

'Does she know who she's up against?' Keisuke asked worriedly.

'Probably,' Ryosuke said nodding.

'That girl's amazing,' Keisuke commented.

'That's why I married her,' Ryosuke said taking a seat.

By the time Akiko came back from her tour, she saw that Kyoko had joined the two Takahashi brothers bringing Kyosuke with her.

'Where's my father?' Ryosuke asked.

'He's gone home, not before leaving precise instructions regarding my father. He really is good at his job,' she commented.

'Too good,' Keisuke said.

'Thanks for looking after him,' Akiko said to Kyoko taking the baby from her then, as she looked at her son something occurred to her, 'oh no…'

'What?' Ryosuke asked his wife.

'I forgot something very important,' she said still looking at the baby.

'Yes. Who's going to take care of him while you work?' Ryosuke asked the question she had in her head.

'I wish I had thought of it before,' Akiko said looking more and more worried.

'We're going to need to hire someone,' Ryosuke said, 'and I know you hate the idea but there is no other choice.'

'Is just that…I feel uneasy having a stranger looking after him,' Akiko said.

They looked at each other for a while then, Kyoko spoke up:

'I'll do it.'

Keisuke looked at her frowning.

'You can't,' Akiko said.

'Why not?' Kyoko asked with a hit of hurt in her voice.

'Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that you can't because I don't want you to, I mean that you can't because you already have a job,' Akiko explained hastily.

'That job at the garage? I can quit anytime I want,' Kyoko said.

'We'd pay you for it, of course,' Ryosuke said.

'Oh, don't worry about that,' Kyoko said waving her hand as in to say no.

'Kyoko,' Akiko started, 'I'll be working at the hospital all day long, maybe even more than that. What I need is not a part-time babysitter, I need someone who I can rely on almost twenty-four/seven.'

'I can do that,' she said determinately.

'Then we'll have to pay you accordingly because, if you quit your job, you won't be able to keep your car and FD's are horribly expensive cars when it comes to their maintenance, especially if you use them to race,' Ryosuke said.

'Oh well, we can discuss this later,' Kyoko said smiling happily.

'To be honest, I'd be much happier if it's you looking after him,' Akiko said, 'after all, you know Kyosuke almost as well as I do, if not better and I know that he'll be in good hands with you.'

'Then that's a deal?' Kyoko asked.

'That's a deal,' Ryosuke answered and Akiko nodded.

Kyoko looked at Keisuke and was surprised to find him deep in thought and with a troubled look on his face. It looked as though as he was going to say something when they saw one of the hospital's doctors walking towards Akiko:

'You may see your father now, he's now conscious but he can't speak yet.'

'I understand,' she said.

'This way, please,' the doctor said.

Then Ryosuke and Akiko, carrying her son in her arms, followed the doctor towards Dr Arakawa's room.

'Hey, you're alright? Kyoko asked her boyfriend the minute they were left alone.

'Yeah,' Keisuke said but Kyoko wasn't buying it.

'I know something's troubling you,' Kyoko insisted.

'It's nothing,' he said even less believably.

'It's not nothing, what's up?' Kyoko said without being fully aware that she had just pressed it a bit too much.

'You really want to know?' he suddenly said, speaking with a tone of voice a little too high for a hospital's waiting room, 'huh, do you?'

She clearly looked as though as she didn't want to know but Keisuke was already too upset to notice that.

'What on earth did just do?' he said getting up and starting to pace up and down the room.

Kyoko, for the life of her, couldn't come up with an answer.

'Don't you have any respect for me?' Keisuke said suddenly, sounding really hurt.

'What? Of course I do,' Kyoko replied startled by his question.

'The hell you do!' he shouted, 'if you did, you'd have asked my opinion before taking such an important decision involving my family.'

'What?' Kyoko asked refusing to believe her ears and trying her best to ignore the way he had excluded her from what he considered his family.

'Do you know what you just did?' he repeated and without waiting for her answer, he replied to his own question, 'you just became my family's hired help. It's like if I went out with one of our freaking maids.'

'Keisuke, that's ridiculous!' Kyoko starting to get rather upset herself.

'No! You completely disregarded how I'd feel about this.'

'Keisuke, I'm just doing a favour to Akiko,' she said now her anger bordering with desperation.

'Akiko,' he muttered, then, shouting again, he asked, 'why can't you respect me the way she respects Aniki?'

Kyoko froze after having heard this.

'I'm not listening to this. Comparing me to your sister-in-law is just too creepy,' she said shaking her head as if trying to physically get rid of the very thought.

'At least she never takes decisions without checking with Aniki first and if she has to, she always puts his best interests before her own,' he said still shouting at her.

Kyoko's eyes started watering and she felt herself dangerously close to burst into tears.

'Keisuke, why are you with me?' she asked miserably.

He stayed in silence and that hurt Kyoko even more.

'Well, if that's how you feel, maybe we shouldn't be together,' she said hoping that he'd say that she was crazy saying something like that.

Instead, with his voice shaking with fury, he said:

'You're right, maybe we shouldn't be together.'

Kyoko looked at him feeling devastated at what she saw: Keisuke was looking angrier and more serious than she had ever seen him before.

'Do you really think that?' she asked with a very small voice broken by her badly contained sobs.

He just turned round facing the wall and giving his back to her.

Kyoko's heart became as heavy as a rock inside her chest and, for the second time in her life, she felt it break into a million pieces and the saddest part was that, both times, it had been caused by the same man: the one standing before her, stubbornly refusing to face her.

Enough was enough, Kyoko thought then, without sparing another look at Keisuke, she turned round, got out of the waiting room and started running down the corridor desperate to find a way out of the hospital for, if she didn't get some fresh air soon, she would surely die.

_To be continued…_


	11. Chapter Ten

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Ten_

He was still facing the wall when he heard someone entering the waiting room. Thinking it was Kyoko, Keisuke stayed still waiting for her to say something.

'Where's Kyoko?' he heard his brother asking instead.

Turning round, Keisuke tried to hide the emotional turmoil within him with a mask of indifference.

'I don't know…'

'What's going on Keisuke?' Ryosuke asked, now looking quite concerned.

'I think you're going to need to find another babysitter,' Keisuke said not being able to conceal the bitterness in his voice.

'Why? What did you do?' Ryosuke said.

'Why does it have to be me doing something wrong?' Keisuke asked sounding more hurt than offended.

Ryosuke simply looked at him with that know-it-all air that Keisuke had always admired but that, right at this moment, he hated.

'Alright, we argued. But it was her fault,' Keisuke admitted.

'What did she do?' Ryosuke asked and his tone suggested that he didn't even remotely think it was possible for Kyoko to do anything wrong.

'She disrespected me,' Keisuke said angrily hoping that his brother, being a man, would get the point.

Instead, Keisuke was shocked to hear that his brother just laughed at this.

'What are you laughing at?' Keisuke asked now getting annoyed at his brother too.

'She disrespected you. Do you have any idea how childish that sounds?' Ryosuke said, regaining his serious look.

'What the hell do you know about how I feel?' Keisuke said and was about to walk away when Ryosuke, raising his voice just a little bit, he said with an icy tone:

'Do you really think I don't know what being insulted feels like?'

Keisuke looked at him conveying in his gaze his incredulity over the fact that his brother had ever been insulted by anyone in any way.

'Let me illuminate you Keisuke: father has never taken in consideration my wishes, in all these years he's done nothing but completely disregard the way I wanted to live my life. I know very well what it means to be disrespected so, don't you go and tell me that Kyoko has done anything as bad as that because I will simply not believe you.'

Keisuke spent several moments trying to come up with an appropriate response then, giving up, he said:

'She didn't consult me before offering herself to baby-sit Kyo-chan.'

'So what? Do you know the amount of things Akiko does without telling me first? With all the time we spend separated, if she didn't take the initiative regarding certain things, we wouldn't get anything done.'

'Yes, but she always checks with you for the important things,' Keisuke insisted, fearing that he wasn't getting his point across his brother either.

'Like asking father to train her to run the Arakawa's hospitals? Like when she bargained with both our father and hers so I could carry on with our racing team?' Ryosuke said almost sarcastically.

'Yes well, but she always did it with your best interests in her mind,' Keisuke said getting desperate because he was clearly losing ground.

'Yes, that's true. But, so does Kyoko. It's awfully good of her to look after Kyosuke for us. By doing that, Akiko will be able to have the peace of mind she'll need to work with father, something that it's essential if I am to carry on with the team, the team which you, Keisuke, race for. So, if you follow the line, you see that she only offered herself to look after Kyo-chan so you could carry on racing.'

Keisuke sat down.

'Oh my God,' he muttered putting his head on his hands and his elbows on his knees.

'I take you didn't see it quite that way, did you?' Ryosuke asked rhetorically but Keisuke shook his head nonetheless.

'I was horrible to her,' he said, still staring at the floor.

'Why don't you go and talk to her?' Ryosuke said.

'Because it's too late, I saw the way her eyes were. I turned round so I didn't see I was hurting her.'

'Can't you take back what you said?' Ryosuke asked and Keisuke shook his head again.

'No. Aniki, I really think I've screwed up this time. I already broke her heart once and she forgave me. I don't think she'll forgive me again…'

'Never underestimate the forgiving capability of a woman. Especially if said woman is in love with you,' Ryosuke said.

'Do you think so?' Keisuke said finally looking up to his brother.

'I know so. Goodness knows how many times Akiko has forgiven me when I've messed up.'

'Yeah, that's right,' Keisuke said.

'Besides, where are you going to find another woman who's so clearly made for you?' Ryosuke asked.

'And who can cope with me the way she does,' Keisuke added miserably.

'Keisuke, you're a fighter, always have been. You need to fight your way back into her heart. Now, go home, sleep on it and tomorrow morning, first thing, I want you to go and talk to her, beg for her forgiveness if needed. Understood?'

'Alright, Aniki,' Keisuke said.

'Good,' Ryosuke said sounding pretty much satisfied.

'What are you going to do?' Keisuke asked.

'I'm staying here with my wife. Kyo-chan's been taken into the hospital's nursery so he can sleep there while the nurses keep an eye on him.'

The next day, a few minutes after dawn, Keisuke got up from bed without having actually fallen asleep. He had just been turning round on it torn between following Aniki's advice or calling her in the middle of the night.

Thankfully, reason had prevailed and he had decided to wait till the morning, only that he could no longer wait: he picked his phone from his bedside table and dialled Kyoko's mobile phone number.

Unsurprisingly, it was turned off.

Not giving up, Keisuke dialled then her home's phone number. After three rings, the answer machine clicked itself on.

Not wanting to leave a message, without having had breakfast and wearing the same clothes he had been wearing all night long, he decided to just go to her place. Maybe if he just showed up, she'd throw herself in his arms, they'd kiss and both would be able to put their silly argument behind.

This thought proved itself entirely too optimistic for, when Keisuke arrived at the building that housed Kyoko's apartment, he saw that something was missing. Her FD wasn't parked where she usually left it.

'Maybe she hasn't come back home yet…' he said to himself as he was getting out of the car so he could go and wait outside her door for whenever she decided to come back.

After fifteen minutes there and as he was beginning to get impatient, he heard footsteps coming his way. He got up from the floor where he'd been sitting just to see that the footsteps belonged to some guy whose name Keisuke didn't remember but that he knew was a neighbour of Kyoko's.

'Hey there, are you waiting for Iwase-san?' the guy asked.

'Yeah,' Keisuke said with a tone of voice that suggested the guy to mind his own business.

'Well, you're waiting for nothing,' he said, clearly not caring about Keisuke's rudeness, 'she left awfully early this morning to go to her parents…'

'What? Did she tell you where that is?' Keisuke asked now sounding much more polite.

'Nope, sorry. Have a nice day,' the guy said getting into his house.

'Shit!' Keisuke said for, even though he knew her parents lived nearby, he hadn't the faintest idea of where their house was. Deciding he'd try her mobile phone until she answered it, he got back to his car, climbed into it, and drove quite furiously back to his brother's house.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Akiko's phone woke her up for she had been sleeping on a couch near her father's bed.

'Yes?' she answered hastily fearing that her father would wake up.

'Hi, did I wake you?' Kyoko asked.

'No! Don't worry,' she lied. Her husband had told her the previous night what had happened between Kyoko and Keisuke and, in all honesty, Akiko didn't know how to confront the issue with her.

'You've probably heard,' Kyoko said and in so doing, she saved Akiko from having to bring the topic up.

'Yes, I did. Kyoko, Keisuke was just upset. You know how he is like, he just doesn't think straight when he gets angry…' Akiko started.

'No, it wasn't that. I just can't stand the way he looked at me last night,' Kyoko said interrupting her and Akiko knew that her friend was making an inhuman effort to keep her voice steady.

'Baby, I swear, men don't mean half of the things they say, especially if they're angry,' Akiko said, trying to make her feel better.

'No, Keisuke did. He compared me to you Akiko,' she said and Akiko had to repress a gasp of surprise.

'Yeah, he probably said you're much better than his hysterical sister-in-law,' Akiko tried, and failed, to lighten up the mood.

'On the contrary: he pointed you as an example of what I should aim to be,' Kyoko said no longer bothering to contain her sobs.

'See what I mean? He was clearly out of his mind last night. He would never say that if he had had it all up there.'

'No. Look Akiko, no offence or anything but I really don't want to discuss this with you or anybody else. I've called you to tell you that, unfortunately I won't be able to keep my end of the deal and I will not be able to look after Kyo-chan.'

Akiko thought of her baby who was currently a guest in the nursery.

'Don't worry about that now,' Akiko said, 'Kyoko, why don't we meet up for lunch so we can talk about this?'

'No. I can't. I'm at my parents' now and I think I'll stay here for a while.'

'What about Keisuke?' Akiko said.

'What about him? Last night he made it remarkably clear that he wants nothing to do with me…'

'He loves you Kyoko, and you love him,' Akiko said.

'Love is not all you need,' Kyoko said.

'The Beatles disagree with you,' Akiko commented, in a last, desperate attempt at trying to make her laugh.

'They hadn't met Keisuke,' she said and, with this, she said a quick 'see you later' before hanging up.

As Akiko put the phone back on the table, Ryosuke came back into the room.

'You look better,' she said for Ryosuke had gone back home to take a quick shower and to get the things he needed for the team's work.

'I feel better. Keisuke's in a right state though,' he replied and, seeing that his father-in-law's condition hadn't changed, he didn't bother asking for an update.

'Have you seen him?' Akiko asked frowning.

'No, I've heard him. He's locked himself up in his apartment and he's playing the loudest music so we can't hear him cry…'

'He's crying?' Akiko asked disbelievingly.

'I bet he is. He should, if he loses Kyoko he's not going to find another girl who'll be such a good match for him ever again,' Ryosuke sentenced mercilessly.

'I think the same goes for Kyoko. Unfortunately, she really doesn't want to listen to any reasons. I think we should give them some time to realise that they're being stupid,' Akiko said.

'Yeah, I agree. Now, I've got to go but if you need me, call me, I'll have my phone with me at all times.'

'Okay. I love you,' she said getting up to give him a peck on the lips.

'Me too,' he replied kissing her back. Then he was gone again and Akiko reassumed her sitting position by her still sleeping father. In a few minutes she'd go to check on her son and then she'd have to start working.

A week later, Kyoko made it back to her apartment as quickly as she could. These days she feared going out because she was terrified she'd find Keisuke waiting for her somewhere. She knew that it was taking her a huge amount of willpower to stay resolute so she wouldn't give up and call him. If she saw him…well, she was sure her determination would just crumble miserably.

This morning, she was even more in a hurry for the little package she was carrying back from the Seven Eleven five blocks away. She'd gone to that one because she never went there and, after today, she'd never go there ever again.

Once in her apartment, she rushed to do everything as she hoped it was done and, after that, she went to her small living room to watch TV to kill some time.

Three minutes later, with her heart beating so hard and sounding so loudly in her ears that she could hardly hear the TV, she jumped off the sofa and ran back to her bathroom.

'What the hell?' she said looking at the thing in a hand that she couldn't stop shaking.

The stick was neither pink nor blue as it should have been.

Instead, it was green.

_To be continued…_


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Eleven_

Green, Kyoko thought with desperation as the second pregnancy test turned that colour too. If it hadn't been because Kyoko was way too scared to do so, she'd have laughed at the absurdity of it all.

She stared at the two green sticks for several minutes before, very slowly, her brain started connecting the pieces of information together so it could form some sort of puzzle that brought Kyoko to one single conclusion: she needed help, professional help. She needed Akiko.

'Hello?' the pleasant voice of her friend answered the phone. Kyoko could tell that Akiko was walking for she was a bit out of breath.

'Sorry I'm interrupting anything?' Kyoko asked worried that she had disrupted Akiko's very busy schedule.

'Kyoko, don't be silly, you could interrupt me in the middle of an open heart surgery and I'd still pick up the phone,' Akiko said sounding extremely happy.

'Really?' Kyoko asked.

'Okay, maybe you'd have to leave a message but I'd definitely call you back,' Akiko admitted.

'Akiko, I really need to talk to you, when will you have some free time?' Kyoko said getting serious again.

'I'm following one of the doctor's rounds right now but I should be free in about an hour. Do you want me to come to your house?'

'No, no, I was thinking of going there to see you.'

'Alright, let's meet at my father's office in an hour, ok?'

'Sure thing,' Kyoko said.

Fifty-five minutes later and after getting dressed and having carefully packed the two now vividly green sticks into a piece of cloth, Kyoko found herself walking up to the elevator that would bring her up to Akiko's father's office.

'Iwase-san,' the secretary said seeing her getting off the elevator, 'Doctor Takahashi told me you'd come, she's not here yet. She told me to ask you to wait for her inside the office.'

'Alright, thank you,' Kyoko said feeling a bit overwhelmed at the luxury of Doctor Arakawa's office. Everywhere she looked there were expensive-looking objects and pieces of furniture. Only the chair on which she was sitting looked expensive enough to pay for several months of her apartment's rent.

'I'm sorry to keep you waiting,' Akiko said coming into the room. Kyoko noticed with concern that Akiko looked very tired and sleep-deprived.

'Don't worry. I'm really happy you could see me so quickly.'

'I'll say it again, Kyoko, you're like family to me and I'd do anything for my family.'

'Speaking of which, how are you dealing with Kyosuke?' Kyoko asked for she had been concerned about what Akiko would do regarding her baby.

'Oh, don't worry about that. He's now a permanent guest at the nursery. Since he's the oldest baby there, he's become some sort of leader and now, whenever he starts crying, everyone else cries and whenever he sleeps, everyone sleeps too. The nurses have all fallen in love with him so they don't care too much about any disruption he may cause. I guess the kid's inherited a large part of the Takahashi's charm,' Akiko explained smiling fondly.

'Probably,' Kyoko said laughing softly.

'What can I do for you Kyoko?' Akiko said then still smiling.

'Er…okay, so, hypothetically speaking, I just wanted to ask you if you've ever heard of a pregnancy test going green instead of pink or blue.'

Akiko's smile was replaced by a very concerned looking face.

'Are you asking me this as a friend or as a doctor?'

'What's the difference?' Kyoko said feeling all confused.

'Anything you tell me as a doctor will be protected by the patient-doctor confidentiality agreement. If you speak to me as a friend and I feel that what you tell me has an impact to other people, I may not guarantee that I'll keep it to myself,' Akiko explained with an almost brutal honesty.

'Then I'm talking to you as a doctor,' Kyoko decided.

'I get it,' Akiko said, 'just for the sake of clarity, we're not talking hypothetically here, are we?'

'No, we're not,' Kyoko admitted then, taking the little parcel out of her bag, she produced the two green pregnancy tests.

'Alright, you know how these work, don't you?' Akiko asked.

'More or less,' Kyoko said.

'The stick of a pregnancy test contains a reactor that, in contact with the right concentration of hCG, a hormone produced by the placenta in the first weeks of pregnancy, becomes either pink or, in other testers, it shows through a line or a circle.'

'Why is mine green? It was supposed to turn blue or pink.'

'Yes, there are several things that may make a test fail or produce false results. It could even mean that the tester itself is faulty. In any case, did you wait a couple of days before repeating the test or did you just repeat it straight away?'

'I did it straight away,' Kyoko admitted biting her lower lip.

'It's a lot more accurate if you repeat the test after a while. How late are you?'

'Ten days,' Kyoko said, 'at first I thought I was just stressed, you know, with all that's happened but now… Akiko, what am I going to do?'

Seeing that her friend was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Akiko got up from the chair and, kneeling next to her friend, she passed her arm around Kyoko's shoulders and hugged her.

'Baby, I take that if you're worried, there is a definite risk that you may be pregnant.'

Kyoko nodded.

'I should have a chat with you and Keisuke about the whole safe-sex thing,' Akiko said shaking her head.

'We only did it once without protection,' Kyoko defended herself.

'Kyoko, once is all you need to get pregnant,' Akiko said making Kyoko blush with embarrassment.

'Alright, this is what we're going to do: you're coming with me downstairs and we'll take a blood sample. This way we'll be absolutely certain about whether you're pregnant or not. Once we know for sure, we'll take it from there but rest assured that regardless of what happens, you can always count on me, okay?'

Kyoko nodded again.

'Good. Now, let's go.'

A few minutes later, both women were in one of the examination rooms of the hospital while Akiko took a blood sample from Kyoko.

'Did it hurt?' Akiko said concernedly.

'Nope, you're really good at this poking people thing,' Kyoko said laughing softly.

'Keep that in mind, will you?' Akiko said smiling, then turning round to a nurse that was standing by her side, she said, 'get this down to the labs and tell them I need the results with priority one, alright?'

'Sure,' the nurse said leaving the two women alone again.

'What's priority one?' Kyoko asked.

'It means getting the results within 4 hours.'

'Wow! I had to wait for a whole week the last time I got a blood test done,' Kyoko commented.

'Owning two hospitals has to have some advantages, doesn't it?' Akiko said chuckling softly.

'I guess so,' Kyoko said then, she added, 'sometimes I'm so jealous of you.'

'What? Why?' Akiko asked frowning.

'Well, you know, you're rich and you're already married to a fantastic man who adores you and you have such an adorable baby. Even Keisuke respects you and looks up to you in a way he'll never do with me.'

Akiko snorted loudly.

'Ha!' she exclaimed, 'let me enlighten you Kyoko: being rich has done nothing but cause me pain in my life, the fantastic husband I have wouldn't have noticed me even if I had stood on his foot if it hadn't been because I was literally forced into his life, giving birth to Kyosuke almost cost me my life and regarding Keisuke, he tried to terrify me in every way he knows out of marrying his brother. So, please, don't go and tell me you're jealous because if you want my life, you're welcome to have it.'

Kyoko didn't know what to say for she had never seen Akiko get so angry before.

'I'm sorry, it was a very stupid thing to say,' she finally said.

Seeing Kyoko looking so mortified made Akiko feel guilty:

'Kyoko, we all have our problems, it's how we deal with them that makes us weak or strong.'

'I know, I know,' Kyoko said.

'My sessions with the therapist have paid off, haven't they?' Akiko said now with a small smile and that finally made Kyoko smile too.

'Yeah, they have.'

'You really don't want to get back together with Keisuke, do you?' Akiko asked trying to be as careful as possible.

'I don't know. I was about to give in but now, with this whole pregnancy mess.'

'I know. Well, once we get the results you'll have to make a decision. After all, if you are pregnant, Keisuke has the right to at least know about it.'

'Yeah, I guess so,' Kyoko said.

Akiko took a quick look at her watch.

'I'm sorry to say this but I need to go back to work and then I'll have to go and check on Kyosuke. Why don't you go and see him? I'm sure he's missed you.'

'No offence Akiko, I absolutely adore your son but, right now and even if it's Kyo-chan, the last thing I want to see is a baby,' Kyoko said then, she added, 'I think I'll go home.'

'Alright. I'll call you as soon as I get the results,' Akiko said.

'Sure, see you later and thanks for everything Akiko,' Kyoko said getting up from the chair where she'd been sitting.

'Don't mention it. Anything I can do for you, I'll do it.'

'I know. Thanks,' Kyoko said.

'I'll walk you to your car, okay?'

A few minutes later, Akiko was walking back into the hospital, having seen Kyoko drive off with her FD, when she felt a strong hand grasping her arm.

She felt herself being dragged into a dark corner of the car park and, for a second, she considered screaming for her life when, looking up, she saw the very angry face of her brother-in-law glaring at her.

'Keisuke, what the...'

'What's wrong with Kyoko?' he shouted strengthening the grip on Akiko's already sore arm.

'You're hurting me!' she shouted back.

'I'll hurt you even more if you don't tell me what's wrong with Kyoko and why didn't you tell me you were going to see her today!' Keisuke shouted back, still not letting go of Akiko's arm.

'Threatening me again? Go ahead, hit me,' she challenged him while facing him with all the bravery she could muster.

'Yeah, so you can tell Aniki,' Keisuke said but this time he released her from his grasp.

'Keisuke, I don't need your brother to defend me. I'm a doctor, remember? I could kill you and make it look like an accident,' she said glaring back at him.

This seemed to finally calm him down enough so his brain could start reasoning again.

'Would you do that?' he asked frowning.

'Would you hit me?' she asked back. Keisuke then shook his head. 'Right, I thought so. Kyoko was here because she needed my medical advice and therefore, I can't tell you anything about it, however, if you want to find out what's wrong with her, you should go and talk to her.'

'Don't you think I've tried? The bloody woman doesn't want to see me!'

'And you blame her? Keisuke, you were extremely nasty to her when she had done nothing but being incredibly considered to us.'

'I know, I know: I screwed up, but now she's not even letting me ask her to forgive me!' he said with his voice full of frustration and regret.

'Keep trying,' Akiko said.

'Akiko, please, tell me what's wrong with her,' Keisuke insisted.

'I can't,' Akiko said shaking her head.

'Why not? She's not sick, is she?' he asked widening his eyes in fear.

'No, she's not but I really can't tell.'

'Is she pregnant or what?' Keisuke said almost jokingly.

It was the tiniest fraction of a second but long enough for Keisuke to see Akiko's reaction to his question betray her.

'Oh my...' he whispered then, without even finishing the sentence, he turned round and started running towards his car.

'Wait! Keisuke! What are you going to do?' Akiko asked extremely concerned.

He stopped and, without facing her, he said:

'I'm going to her place and I'm going to talk to her even if it's the last thing I do.'

With this, he started running again leaving a very worried Akiko behind.

_To be continued…_


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twelve_

Kyoko had just parked her car outside the building where her apartment was when she heard her mobile phone ring. She got the phone out of her bag as she climbed out of her car and was about to check the phone's display to see who was calling when she saw Keisuke's yellow FD approaching her at a suicidal speed.

'Oh shit!' she muttered and thanked the gods she had a centralised locking system in her car key so she could lock the doors as she ran towards her house.

She made it into her apartment just in time to shut the door behind her. Predictably enough, she hadn't even had the time to take her shoes off when Keisuke's voice thundered through the door:

'Kyoko open this door at once!'

Kyoko stood there staring at the door not knowing what to do. Kyoko had never been any less ready to face him than at that precise moment and as she started praying so he would give up and leave, he started banging the door so hard that the entire wall seemed to tremble under his fist.

'OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR OR I SWEAR I'LL KNOCK IT DOWN!' she heard him roar.

Kyoko, despite how very afraid she was, couldn't help but to snicker: was this really the way he thought she would be persuaded to open the door?

Since Kyoko knew Keisuke well enough to realise he would really knock the door down, she decided to surrender and, putting the safety chain on, she opened the door.

'Do you think this is going to keep me outside?' he said looking at the chain disdainfully.

'Of course not, but it gives me a false sense of security. Now, what do you want?' she said tiredly.

'Were you going to tell me about the baby?' Keisuke spurted brutally.

Kyoko felt how her heart skipped a couple of heartbeats.

'She wasn't supposed to tell you,' she finally said unable to believe that Akiko would betray her voluntarily, 'did you beat her up or threatened her so she'd tell you?'

'Akiko? Nah, normal threats don't work with her: she's crazy! She told me that if I hit her she'd kill me and make it look like an accident! No, she didn't tell me, I just guessed by the way she reacted when I asked her if you were pregnant.'

'She told you she'd kill you?' Kyoko asked in a last, desperate attempt at trying to avoid the topic.

'Yeah, she's nuts! I preferred her when she was depressed, at least she was harmless,' he joked and Kyoko felt that her determination to keep him out was beginning to falter.

'Really?' she asked.

'No, of course not, Aniki was too miserable back then. Are you going to let me in so we can talk or will I have to stay out of your house, and of your life, forever?'

Kyoko looked at him in the eyes and, seeing that he had considerably calmed down enough and that he was really serious about it, she said:

'Alright. Five minutes, no more, okay?'

'Okay,' he agreed.

He followed her to her living room and they sat down on the small couch that looked even smaller with Keisuke sitting on it.

'Sorry about the mess,' she said.

'Mess? What mess?' he said looking around the apartment and obviously failing to see where it was messy.

Kyoko decided to ignore the whole thing since she already knew all about Keisuke's standards when it came to cleanliness.

'Keisuke, I'm not sure if I'm pregnant. That's why I went to Akiko, she's having the blood work done as we speak so we know for sure.'

Keisuke looked at her briefly before saying:

'This complicates things…'

'No,' she interrupted him, 'this doesn't complicate anything for YOU! This is all my problem and I'll deal with it.'

'You're wrong Kyoko. As I was saying, this complicates things because if before I really needed you to forgive me and to give me a second opportunity, well, a third actually, now I also need to convince you that I'm not doing it only for the chance you may be carrying my baby.'

Kyoko was speechless.

'Look, Kyoko, I know I'm the biggest ass on the planet, okay? You know me, I'm totally useless when it comes to controlling my anger and I tend to do really stupid things when I'm angry. It must be something that happens to us racers because Takumi does it too, anyway, I said horrible things to you that night at the hospital and I'm sorry I didn't think straight away that you were only trying to help me so I could carry on racing.'

'Now you've caught on, haven't you?' Kyoko said with a bittersweet smile.

'Yeah, I'm a bit slow too. What can I do? I'm full of flaws,' he said miserably, 'in fact, I keep wondering what's a smart woman such as yourself doing with a guy as dumb as me?'

'Keisuke, you're not dumb!' she said frowning.

'Well, the records speak against me. This is the second time I let you go…if that's not dumb, I'd like to know what it is,' he insisted.

'Okay, you're not helping me very much to defend you, you know?' Kyoko complained and, she knew then, that she had to forgive and forget all over again because she simply could not live without him.

'Kyoko, please, allow me back into your life,' he begged her.

'How am I supposed to know whether you'll hurt me again?' she asked even though her heart had already chosen to give him another chance.

'You can't. I can't promise you I won't do anything stupid again but I can promise you that I'll try my very best to make you happy,' he said so honestly that Kyoko couldn't help but to smile.

'Sounds reasonable enough,' she said.

'And we're going to be dealing with this whole pregnancy thing together, okay?' he said smiling too.

'Okay,' she nodded.

'Now, woman, can I kiss you or not because I've been dying to do it since I saw you opening that bloody door,'

Kyoko laughed out loud and, taking his head with her hands, she kissed him.

'No, no, not good, you've kissed me. Now it's my turn,' he said kissing her back then, looking at his watch, he said, 'I think my five minutes are up.'

'Well, I could give you five more minutes,' she said.

'What about all your life?' he asked.

'What?' Kyoko said.

'I'm not saying I'd like to do it now but, in the near future, regardless of the test's result, I'd like you to marry me.'

'What?' she repeated.

'Now who's the slow one?' he asked with mock annoyance.

'Are you asking me to marry you?'

'I'd like you to,' he explained.

'I'll be happy to be your wife,' she added smiling.

They were about to kiss again, when the phone, this time the one in the house, rang.

'I'll go and get it,' she said, 'hello?'

'Kyoko? I'm so sorry, I just…'

'Akiko, it's okay. Don't worry about it, it seems like Keisuke and I are back together,' she explained to her very worried sounding friend.

'When he left, I decided to go to the labs and run the test myself so we could get the results a lot faster,' Akiko said.

'And?' Kyoko asked tightening the grip on the phone. Keisuke was looking at her worriedly so her nervousness was probably obvious enough.

'Kyoko, I'm not sure if this is good or bad news but the results are negative. I ran the tests several times just to be sure: you are not pregnant. Should I say I'm sorry?' she asked.

Kyoko remained silent for a short while.

'Kyoko?' Akiko asked sounding even more anxious, 'I don't think I should have told you over the phone,' she said.

'No, it's fine. Thanks for telling me. I'm very happy, don't worry. I'll speak to you later, okay?' Kyoko finally said.

'Are you sure you're okay?' Akiko insisted.

'Absolutely, thanks.'

Slowly, Kyoko put the receiver down and turned round to face her boyfriend.

'So? Are we going to be parents?' he asked tentatively.

Kyoko shook her head.

'No, it seems like it's definitely a negative,' she said and what she saw surprised her: Keisuke was actually disappointed by the news.

'I'm sorry…'

'You really wanted to have a baby?' Kyoko asked showing her incredulity through her voice.

'Yeah, I would have loved to have a kid. Granted, it's a bit too soon for me but, I hope one day we'll have a baby like Kyo-chan, don't you?'

'Yes, I'd love to have a baby like him too but I wouldn't mind having a girl, you know.'

'No, not a girl! I already have enough problems trying to understand you, imagine if I had a mini-you to deal with too. Also, I would have to kill any boy who'd look at her and that would land me in prison.'

Kyoko laughed at that and, even though she felt like crying, for the first time in over a week, the tears would be of joy not sorrow.

Three weeks later, the whole team was gathered for their last training session before the GT300 season started the following weekend.

'Hey Takumi, you're not sleeping enough as usual, huh?' Keisuke said patting his shoulder so heavily that it made Takumi temporarily lose his balance.

'No, if anything, I'm sleeping too much these days,' he replied rubbing the shoulder where Keisuke had hit him.

'Why, isn't your girlfriend keeping you busy?' Keisuke asked hoping Takumi would blush but, instead, Takumi just looked angry.

'I wish. She's all busy training for this very important golf tournament, with that, and our own training sessions, we haven't seen each other for almost two weeks.'

Keisuke lifted his eyebrows and said:

'I'm sorry to hear that man.'

'Can't do anything about it so…you look better though, I take things are going well with Kyoko-san?' Takumi asked and Keisuke was pleased to notice that Takumi had finally learned to relax around him.

'Yeah, they're great! This time I'm not going to screw up, I swear.'

'Keisuke-san, Fujiwara, come here, Ryosuke-san wants to talk to all of us,' Kenta said interrupting their conversation.

The two drivers looked at each other and then decided to follow Kenta and join the rest of the group.

Ryosuke was already there and, judging by his facial expression, he didn't have any good news.

'Guys, we have a small problem: the scrutinisers have just sent us a fax with the verdict of the checks they did on our car to see if it complied with all the GT300 regulations. I was sure that there were no illegal parts in it but, apparently, they aren't happy with the whole exhaust system.'

'Why not?' Matsumoto asked frowning.

'They said that we cannot have any hand made parts on the car,' Ryosuke explained.

'Well, we'll just have to replace the exhaust with the one we had before Fujiwara-san asked us to change it,' Fumihiro said.

'That's not so easy Fumihiro,' Matsumoto said.

'Why not?' Fumihiro said.

'Because we no longer have that one, since we thought we were going to use the one Fujiwara-san suggested, we threw out the old one and sold the parts that could be sold. All the parts we have now are for the new exhaust system.'

'What are you saying?' Ryosuke asked and Keisuke noticed a faint panicky tone on Aniki's voice.

'Ryosuke, we cannot change the exhaust on time for the first race of the season because we don't have the parts,' Matsumoto said looking positively horrified.

_To be continued…_


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Thirteen_

The atmosphere in the team had definitely seen better moments. Everyone stood there avoiding each other's eyes and not knowing what to do.

'I'll fix this,' finally Fujiwara-san said.

'Dad, you heard…'

'Shush, I said I'll fix it and I'll fix it,' he said interrupting Takumi.

'Fujiwara-san, with all due respect, how are you going to get a new exhaust, all the parts we need for it, assemble it and test it in less than two weeks?' Fumihiro asked not bothering to hide a rather blatant scepticism.

'I've got my sources. We should be back in just a few hours,' he just said.

Fumihiro was about to reply to that when Ryosuke interrupted him:

'As long as it's legal, do as you see fit Fujiwara-san.'

'Got it,' Takumi's dad said walking away from the group towards the truck.

'Matsumoto, go with him,' Ryosuke ordered.

'Me?' Matsumoto asked becoming positively terrified.

'Yes, now, we don't have time to waste, help Fujiwara-san load the car in the truck.'

Matsumoto looked first at Fumihiro then back at Ryosuke, only then he started following Fujiwara-san to the garage.

'What do we do?' Keisuke asked his brother.

'Well, I guess we have free time till the car's back so…'

'Ah! Free time!' Keisuke exclaimed happily.

'…so, we could review the data we have of our opponents,' Rysouke finished his sentence as if Keisuke hadn't interrupted him.

'Aniki…' Keisuke started then, seeing the serious expression on his brother's face, he said, 'alright, let's go…'

True to Fujiwara-san's word, a few hours later, Ryosuke heard the truck coming back.

'What? Already?' Fumihiro said his voice a mix of amazement and incredulity.

'That shitty old man,' Takumi said smiling in what was one of the rare moments where he actually felt proud of his father.

'Do I want to know what happened?' Fumihiro asked a very pale looking Matsumoto as he climbed off the truck and helped the other mechanics unload the FD3S.

'I can't even say where we went. That freaking maniac was driving the truck like if it were on freaking rails. I've never been any more scared in my life. I think I fainted at some point and by the time I woke up we had already arrived and then I was told to wait by the truck,' Matsumoto whispered.

'He didn't damage the car, did he? ' Fumihiro asked and started checking the car for any damage that, obviously enough, wasn't there.

'Sure, worry about the car...' Matsumoto complained walking away feeling slightly offended.

Fumihiro looked at his friend concernedly. Oh well, he'd have to worry about that later for at that moment all he cared about was seeing how the car performed with the new exhaust.

'Ryosuke, I'd like to take your brother and my son for a drive around the circuit,' Fujiwara-san said approaching both Takahashi brothers and Takumi.

'Of course, go ahead,' Ryosuke said.

'You, come with me,' he said pointing first at Takumi who, knowing better than to argue with his father, followed him to the car.

They were both sitting inside the car with it facing the straight of the small, local circuit they had rented for the training sessions, when Bunta said:

'You're probably worried about the public and how nervous you're going to be when the race starts, aren't you?'

Takumi considered denying this but then, he remembered he was talking to his father so he opted for a short nod instead.

'Right, now you'll see why you shouldn't worry about those things…'

They started the car and Bunta started doing what he did best: drive like there was no tomorrow.

'Tell me what you see,' Bunta said, his voice sounding as calm as ever.

'Not much, it's getting dark,' Takumi managed to say while hanging on for dear life onto his seat.

'Honestly son, if you were any slower you'd be going backwards,' Bunta said removing one hand from the wheel so he could smack his son's head.

'Hey that hurt!' Takumi complained while his father drifted all the way around one of the sharpest corners of the circuit.

'Look at the road and tell me what you see,' Bunta tried again.

'Er, the road?' he said and, this time Bunta removed both hands of the wheel and crossed them on his chest. This freaked Takumi out since they were doing over two hundred kilometres an hour.

'Just tell me: how thin is the road now?' Bunta said, talking to Takumi like if he were five years old and, worryingly enough, still refusing to put his hands back on the wheel.

'Ah, that, yeah, it looks very thin,' Takumi finally said and for that, he was rewarded by getting his father to grab the wheel once more.

'Right you are. With a road this thin and a car this fast, there is not much more you can worry about, is there?'

'No, not really,' Takumi said.

'Good, because there are only three things I want you to worry about: the road, your car and the one in front of you, the rest, forget it, it's not important.'

'But dad, there will be cars around me…'

'Son, if there are any cars around you five seconds after the start, you've already lost the race.'

Takumi didn't know what to say to that.

He simply limited himself to absorb as much as he could of his father's technique and, after that, when it was Keisuke's turn, he just watched the way his father managed to do everything he wanted with the car.

'What did he do?' Ryosuke asked his brother when Keisuke got off the car and Fujiwara-san had gone to smoke.

'I'll just say this Aniki: I prefer your lectures…'

Takumi smirked seeing how pale Keisuke was, even though Takumi had to give him credit because he hadn't fainted in his first ride ever with Bunta Fujiwara.

Ten days later, having obtained with no problems the scrutineers' approval regarding the car, they found themselves packing up so they could head to the Suzuka circuit where the inaugural race of the Super GT300 Championship would be held.

The first sunrays of dawn made all the team's vehicles, with their black, white, yellow and gold paintwork (their sponsor's logo's colour) shine in a way that made Ryosuke get very emotional: his dream was, at long last, on its way to become a reality.

'Hey boss, let's go…' Fumihiro said with a weird smile on his face. He had probably noticed the dreamy look on Ryosuke's face.

'Yes.'

'Well, good luck and be careful, alright?' Akiko said with little Kyosuke sleeping in her arms.

'Sure,' he said kissing his wife and then giving a quick peck on his son's head, 'I'll give you a call when we get there, alright?'

Akiko nodded.

Not far from where they were, Takumi saw Kyoko hugging Keisuke and wishing him good luck too. This made him realise that, once again, his girlfriend wasn't there for him.

'Wanna kiss too?' he heard his father say, his voice full of amusement.

'Oh, shut up!' Takumi said and with this, he walked towards the van where he was going to be travelling. Thankfully, that van was going to be driven by his father so he could just sleep or pretend he did so.

The driving arrangements seemed to please everyone, Fumihiro and Ryosuke travelled together in the motorhome, Tomiguchi drove one of the team's vans with one of the two junior mechanics while Matsumoto was left to drive the truck with the other one.

Kenta was ecstatic to find out that he was in charge of driving the van where Keisuke travelled. Unfortunately for him, the youngest of the Takahashi brothers decided to copy Takumi and slept all the way to Suzuka, only waking up when the general mess that reigned in the middle of the paddock made it impossible for him to continue sleeping.

'Wow!' he exclaimed seeing the hundreds of people that seemed to populate the area even though it was still quite early in the morning.

'I know, isn't it amazing! I've never been so excited in my life Keisuke-san,' Kenta said and Keisuke chuckled for his friend seemed to be bouncing on his seat out of sheer enthusiasm.

'Neither have I,' he said sincerely. He was only a bit sad that Kyoko was missing all of this but, after all, they could hardly leave Akiko cope on her own with everything back home so, his girlfriend had decided to stay behind and watch the race on TV instead.

When they arrived at the box they had been allocated, they started unloading all the material and getting everything organised for the afternoon when the first of the free practice sessions would begin.

'Hey Bunta!' someone shouted through the opening of the box, the one that faced the track.

They all turned round and, seeing the owner of the voice made everyone stop working, one of the junior mechanics actually dropping one of the toolboxes.

'Keiichi, thanks for the parts,' Bunta said approaching with complete nonchalance the Drift King, Keiichi Tsuchiya.

'No problem, were they alright?'

'Perfect, you'll see it this afternoon,' Bunta said.

'Hey, you're Ryosuke Takahashi, aren't you?' Keiichi asked looking at their Team Manager.

'Yes, that's me,' he said.

'It's a pity you've retired from active racing, I would have loved to see you on the track again…'

'Yes, well, I'm a father now so I can't be so reckless anymore,' Ryosuke said.

'Yeah, having kids changes your priorities in a way nothing else does,' Keiichi said and, judging by his tone of voice, he seemed to know what he was talking about.

'Nevertheless, both of my drivers are extremely capable and, I daresay, with a lot more potential than I ever had.'

'That's quite an statement there,' Keiichi said then, looking at Bunta, he said, 'but again, I know that one of them is Bunta's son and the other is your own brother so, I take you've got your reasons to say what you say.'

'I do,' Ryosuke said and then, he added, 'besides, we have an excellent team backing us up so I'm confident we can do well.'

'What can I say, I can't wait to see you guys in action,' Keiichi said.

Ryosuke was going to reply to that when a commotion outside distracted him and the rest of the team.

'What's happening?' Ryosuke asked.

'Oh, it must be that Mina-chan girl,' Keiichi said.

'Mina-chan? THE Mina-chan?' Matsumoto couldn't help but to ask.

'Who's Mina-chan?' Takumi asked.

'She's one of the best J-pop singers. She's won the Golden Disk this year,' Matsumoto explained.

'Yeah, and she's gorgeous,' one of the junior mechanics explained.

'Yes, that too,' Matsumoto agreed.

'Oh well, she's going to sing during the opening ceremony here at the circuit and, apparently, she's decided to roam around during these days and her fans are making a gigantic deal out of it, quite annoying really,' Keiichi said clearly thinking that a pop star didn't belong in a racing circuit.

The team enjoyed Keiichi's company till he was called by his manager and had to leave.

'Now, you two, go to the motorhome and get some rest while we finish getting things ready,' Ryosuke said talking to Takumi and Keisuke.

'Sure,' Keisuke said while Takumi simply nodded.

The two drivers entered the motorhome and Keisuke went straight to the room that had been assigned to him. He immediately fell asleep.

Takumi, however, laid on his bed for quite a bit before deciding that he was just too nervous to manage to get any sleep. On their way to the boxes, he had seen numerous very famous drivers and he had also seen many other celebrities. If he had ever felt any more out of place, Takumi couldn't remember it.

He just couldn't think he was worthy of all of that. Alright, he was a fair driver but the people here were serious about their racing. This all felt way too business-like for Takumi and he feared that he would not be up to the standard. Again, he couldn't remember any other time when he had felt any more insecure about himself.

'The road, think of the road,' he mumbled to himself as he exited the motorhome to go for a short walk around the area. Maybe that way he'd calm down enough to face the rest of the day.

He heard a stifled chuckle come from a dark corner near the motorhome and he walked there to investigate.

What he found there left him speechless: an incredibly beautiful girl was sitting down on the ground and, by the looks of it, she seemed to be hiding from someone.

'Hey, boy-who-talks-on-his-own, don't tell anyone you've seen me, alright?' she said.

'I don't even know who you are,' Takumi said with his usual monotone voice.

'Really?' she said and, for some reason, she seemed unable to believe so.

'Nope, sorry,' Takumi said.

'I'm Yoshimura Minami,' she said getting up and offering him her hand.

'Fujiwara Takumi,' he replied shaking it briefly and releasing it just as quickly.

Then, she did something as strange as it was shocking: getting on her tiptoes, she put her hands on his shoulders and went up to kiss him full on his mouth.

_To be continued…_


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Fourteen_

The time that elapsed between Takumi's brain making the decision and his hand actually moving was so short that he found himself grasping the girl's arm before being fully conscious of doing it.

'Hey, why did you do that for?' Takumi asked still absolutely astounded by it all.

'Oh, that's just a thank you kiss, for not telling anyone you've seen me,' she said shrugging.

'Do you just go around kissing people randomly?' Takumi asked not sure whether he wanted to be angry or not.

'Oh no, I only kiss people who I think they're cute enough,' she said with a giggle.

Takumi didn't know what to say to that. This girl was just too much.

'You really don't have a clue of who I am, do you?' she asked.

'Nope, sorry,' he said blushing.

'That's so cool!' she commented and Takumi had the distinct impression that she wasn't talking to him now.

'Why is that?' he asked.

'Well, it doesn't happen often that I have to introduce myself,' she said without any trace of arrogance in her voice then, she said: 'I'm Mina-chan and I'm a singer.'

'AH! Oh…' Takumi stuttered recalling what Matsumoto had said earlier, 'Oh my gosh…' he added making her laugh again.

'Ah, I see that at least you know of me,' she commented.

'Yes, I know of you, you won the Golden Disk this year, didn't you?'

'Oh, so you're not quite as clueless as you look,' she said.

Takumi was still too shocked to feel annoyed at that comment.

'So, what are you doing here?' she asked.

'I'm a driver. I'm with the Kirin Takahashi Racing team.'

'Aren't you a bit young for that?' she asked.

'Look who's talking, how old are you? Sixteen?' he asked, this time getting slightly offended.

'Almost, I've just turned eighteen. What about you?'

'I'm twenty,' he said making sure his voice sounded as deep and serious as Ryosuke-san's did.

'Ah, an adult, nice,' she said and Takumi couldn't help but to think that she was taking the mickey out of him.

Takumi didn't know when or how come but he found himself sitting next to her on the ground.

'So, why are you hiding?' he asked suddenly.

'Ah…I just needed some space, I guess…' she said getting serious and almost sad.

'Why?' he asked.

'It's just that, sometimes, it gets too much,' she replied and, seeing that Takumi was clearly not understanding her, she added, 'the fans, the media, the pressure. Sometimes I need some space so I can be myself for a bit.'

Takumi thought that was incredibly sad.

'Why don't you quit singing if it's so bad?' he asked.

'Oh, I've thought of quitting numerous times but I have a problem: I'm in love with music. Even if I weren't famous, I'd still sing all day long. I can't help it.'

'I can understand that,' he commented, after all, for him driving was like an addiction and he simply could not live without the speed.

'In any case, I couldn't quit even if I wanted to. My manager says that since I'm so talented, I have the duty to exploit this talent, not doing so would be selfish of me.'

'That's stupid,' he said then, seeing her shock, he added, 'just because you're good at doing something doesn't mean you've got to do it.'

Minami remained quiet for a bit, then taking a quick look at her watch, she said:

'Oh, I better leave. If my manager finds out I'm gone he'll get the police to organise a search party.'

Takumi looked at his own watch and, with dismay, he realised that he too had to run if he wanted to make it on time for the team's pre-practice meeting.

'What's your car's number?' she asked as both of them got up.

'Eighty six,' he replied.

'Alright, I'll cheer for you then. In exchange, try to come and see me sing, okay?'

'Sure,' he said and then, she kissed him again.

'Bye, bye,' she said leaving him standing there, feeling rather foolish.

'She's done it again,' he commented to himself touching his lips with the tips of his fingers.

He walked back to the garage with a silly smile on his face and a slight blush on his cheeks.

'Where in the hell have you been?' Keisuke said walking up to him.

'Er…I went for a walk…' Takumi said.

'We're about to start the meeting and no one could find you. This is a professional racing team…'

'That's enough Keisuke,' Ryosuke said then, looking at Takumi, he said 'don't be late again, understood?'

'Yes sir,' Takumi said, his slight blush turning into a deep shade of red that made him feel extremely hot from the neck up.

The look his father gave him only made him feel worse and, if that wasn't enough, half way through the speech Ryosuke was giving to the team, he suddenly remembered two tiny facts: one, a perfectly unknown girl had just kissed him and, two, he already had a girlfriend.

Oh gosh, Mika would kill him if she found out about what had just happened. Served her right for leaving him alone, Takumi thought ignoring the fact that he was being horribly unfair to her. After all, it was as much his fault as it was hers that they didn't see each other much these days…

'So, what do you think Takumi?' Ryosuke's voice made its way through the fog that seemed to have taken possession of Takumi's brain.

'Er…' Takumi said feeling extremely confused since he had not followed a single word of the entire conversation.

'I understand if you feel uneasy about starting the race yourself,' Ryosuke said saving Takumi from his own mistake.

'No, no, it's fine,' Takumi managed to say still fighting to get rid of his troubling thoughts.

'Alright so, we'll have Keisuke start the free practice and then Takumi will have his run,' Ryosuke stated.

They discussed for a while the different tactics to adopt in the several foreseen scenarios and then, after about twenty minutes, Ryosuke said:

'Alright, you two get a light lunch, take a shower and get ready for the free practice.'

Takumi started walking towards the motorhome when he felt a hand on his shoulders. He turned his head around to find his father's staring at him.

'I don't know where you got lost today but, right now, focus on your driving. You've given a hell of a chance to prove yourself, don't waste it daydreaming, alright?'

'Yes dad,' Takumi said.

'Good, now go and make me proud,' Bunta said tousling Takumi's hair showing one of his rare displays of fatherly affection.

That alone made Takumi remind himself of what he was supposed to do there. He had a job to do and he couldn't afford to get distracted. Not even if the cause of the distraction were two highly disturbing, not to mention unexpected, kisses from an absurdly beautiful girl.

What in the heck did she think she was playing at kissing people like that?

He was doing it again! Focus, Takumi, focus, he thought getting annoyed at himself.

Finally, the free practice started and Takumi was left to watch Keisuke's evolutions with the car on a small monitor placed in the team's boxes.

He was doing rather well, Takumi thought and, observing Ryosuke, he could tell his Team Manager was pleased to see his brother performing up to the other drivers' standards.

'Aniki, I'd like the front suspension to be lowered a little, it gets a bit too bouncy in the middle sector,' Keisuke said getting out of the car after his run.

'Alright, we'll do that after Takumi finishes his turn,' Ryosuke said.

Takumi got inside the car and started it. The helmet he was forced to wear was still rather uncomfortable and it felt too heavy on his head, nonetheless, he knew it was necessary so he bear it as well as he could.

He drove out of the boxes slowly and, making sure there were no incoming cars, he drove all the way down the pit lane to incorporate himself into the track.

Finally, after so many training sessions, this was the real thing: he was driving a race car in Japan's best circuit during an official racing event.

Takumi wasn't sure what he had expected to feel but he was sure that it wasn't this strange and indefinite sensation that made him feel so lost and frightened.

He had seen Keisuke's expression when the man had got out of the car: one of absolute happiness and confidence.

Clearly, his team mate didn't feel out of place, on the contrary, Keisuke looked, and probably felt, like at home in his role as professional driver. Unlike Takumi, Keisuke had probably never felt insecure in his whole life…

'What in the heck are you doing?' he heard Fumihiro say through the radio.

This made Takumi realise that his car was going stupidly slow and he was veering dangerously towards the edge of the track.

'Shit!' Takumi said not realising that back at the boxes everyone could hear what he said.

'Shit indeed, now, drive properly or get back in here!' Fumihiro admonished him.

'Yeah, sorry,' he said and that made him focus again on the track.

'What's wrong with him?' Ryosuke asked Fumihiro back at the team's box.

'I don't know.'

Ryosuke threw a sideways look at Takumi's father but, unfortunately, he couldn't read anything from the old man's facial expression.

'He's probably nervous Aniki,' Keisuke said joining the conversation.

'Well, I'll talk to him later,' Ryosuke said.

Even though Takumi tried his best, his lap times were, at best, rather poor. He knew that and, by the time Fumihiro asked him to go back into the boxes, he felt very frustrated about it all.

Ryosuke was walking towards the car when someone, by the looks of him a fellow driver, walked into the box and said, talking to Takumi:

'You call yourself a driver? My granny drives better than you! I refuse to...'

'Hey!' Keisuke said walking towards the newcomer menacingly.

Ryosuke made a gesture that made his younger brother stop.

'Excuse me, I don't know who you are but this is definitely not your team's box and I will not allow you to speak to my driver in such a rude manner. Now, get out of here before I call the circuit's officials.'

The driver looked at Ryosuke and said:

'Oh! I know who you are! You're the great Takahashi Ryosuke, aren't you? What? You're no longer driving? Too afraid I may beat you?'

Neither Keisuke nor the rest of the team could believe their ears and they all waited patiently to see what Ryosuke replied to that.

Ryosuke just laughed it off.

'We'll see about that,' he finally said.

The driver, looked at him, then at Takumi, snorted and said:

'With a driver like that, you're the one who's going to see.'

After that last rude remark, the guy left and the whole team could hear his laughter as he walked back to wherever his team's box was.

They all then looked at Takumi who was still in the car looking extremely miserable.

'Hey, don't worry about that arrogant bastard,' Keisuke said.

'Yeah, he's just a bigheaded pig,' Fumihiro said trying to lighten up the mood.

'No, he's right,' Takumi whispered.

'What? Don't tell me you believe a word of what he said? Takumi, we all know you're one hell of a driver,' Keisuke said.

'No, I'm not,' Takumi said, this time speaking louder. He then looked up and saw his father's worried expression.

Slowly, Takumi got out of the car and, not daring to look at anyone in their face, he said:

'I've known it all along: I'm just not good enough to be here.'

With that and without removing his helmet, he ran out of the box.

'I'll go and talk to him,' Ryosuke said.

_To be continued…_


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Fifteen_

It took him a good five minutes for Ryosuke to find him but, after going around the paddock area, he finally found Takumi sitting on a dark corner near their team's motorhome, the same one where the young man had found Mina-chan earlier on that day.

'Hey, do you mind if I join you?' Ryosuke asked.

At first Takumi looked surprised to see him there but, after a few instants, he shrugged his shoulders and went back to looking at the ground between his feet. Ryosuke sat down next to him and, after considering several ways to start this conversation, he said:

'I think you couldn't have started better,'

'What? Ryosuke-san, I sucked!' Takumi exclaimed thinking his Team Manager's had lost it.

'Yes, you did and we will use this as an advantage,' Ryosuke said.

'An advantage?' Takumi asked, as usual, not really understanding what Ryosuke said.

'Yes, the way you drove earlier on was appalling. Your friend Itsuki drives better than that blindfolded.'

Takumi couldn't be any more confused: comparing him to Itsuki was hardly a good way for him to cheer up.

'This means that everyone is going to underestimate you and, this will be an advantage for us,' Ryosuke explained, finally saying something that made sense.

'Ryosuke-san, I'm not sure I can do it,' Takumi said.

'Yes you can,' Ryosuke said shaking his head.

'I can't focus,' Takumi started.

'You're just nervous. What that guy said would make anyone lose their cool.'

'You never lose your cool Ryosuke-san,' Takumi said and he started feeling a familiar heat on his cheeks.

Ryosuke laughed at that softly and grasped Takumi's shoulder making Takumi turn to face him. The young man panicked thinking that Ryosuke would notice how perturbed Takumi felt every time his Team Manager spoke to him.

'Look, I'm going to tell you something that I've never told anyone except my wife,' Ryosuke said apparently failing to notice the slight blush on Takumi's cheeks, 'the reason why I quit active racing wasn't because I was afraid of guys like that one at the box. The real reason was you.'

'What?' Takumi asked, his eyes widening with shock.

'Yeah, you and my brother Keisuke made me realise what I didn't have or, rather, what I had that you didn't and which made you much more suitable to become professional racers,'

Takumi's face was the perfect expression of perplexity. He simply hadn't understood a single word of what Ryosuke had just told him.

'I'll put it in other words,' Ryosuke said and Takumi was eternally grateful for that, 'I knew what my limits were. The problem was that, at some point, I'm not entirely sure when, I became aware that what we do, driving insanely fast in impossibly twisted roads, is extremely dangerous. For some reason, I started putting that fact together with the rest of the variables that I used to win races.'

'Ryosuke-san…' Takumi said frowning for he wasn't really sure he wanted to be listening to Ryosuke talking like that.

'Don't get me wrong. I wasn't afraid of having an accident. I consider myself a lot braver than that. It's just that when I came up with my absolute speed theory, I realised that one has to have something else than good driving skills and a properly tuned car. One also needs the instinct to go fast, and the mind power to ignore the fact that, by going that fast, you put yourself in a very dangerous position. Unfortunately for me, I no longer can shut out the thought that what I'm doing is dangerous. This conviction has only grown stronger ever since my son was born and I realised that he relies one hundred percent on me. Not that I was ever interested in becoming one but, now that I have a family of my own, I am absolutely sure that I'll never become a professional racer.'

'Ryosuke-san…' Takumi repeated but the older man just let go of his shoulder and got up.

'Come on Takumi, show everyone what you can do.'

Takumi felt something strange in his stomach. Was it only the fact that Ryosuke had called him by his birth name?

'Can I ask you something?' he asked still not getting up.

'Of course,' Ryosuke replied.

'Why do you have so much faith in me?'

Ryosuke looked at him briefly before replying:

'I thought I had answered to that already. Look, you and my brother are the only two drivers I know who, in addition to having excellent driving skills, have the almost suicidal tendency to keep pushing the car to its limits. In your case, you also have some sort of lucky star that seems to protect you against everything that may harm you. I think that altogether, you and my brother are an unbeatable pair. The least I can do is to help you express all those skills in the best possible way by giving you the best car I can.'

Takumi finally got up.

'I'm very grateful for that Ryosuke-san. I promise that I'll try to be stronger from now on.'

'Please don't, if you get any stronger, you're going to cause some serious damage to my ego,' Ryosuke joked smiling.

Takumi dared and laughed at that.

'Now, let's go back before Keisuke goes and beats the crap out of that driver, personally, I think he deserves it but I'd prefer if we beat him on the track, what do you think?'

'I agree,' Takumi said.

'Let's do it then.'

By the time they got back to the box, there were only ten minutes of free practice left and Keisuke was about to get back in the car to do his last run.

'Hey, do you mind if I…' Takumi said to his team-mate.

'No, be my guest,' Keisuke said stepping away from the car then, with an evil smile, he said, 'go for the car number 15.'

'Car number 15? Got it,' Takumi said smirking then, he got inside the car and drove out of the garage picking up speed as he cruised through the pit lane.

'Guys, we're gonna have some fun now,' Keisuke said laughing.

Back on the track, Takumi decided to pretend that this was his very first run. This time he wouldn't allow his mind to wander. He was going to drive seriously.

Doing what his dad had told him, he focused on the road and his car. Forgetting about everything else, including the cars he, one by one, overtook.

He quickly found himself having fun, experimenting with different lines and deciding which ones were better to make better times.

Finally, he saw it: the car number 15 was just ahead of him. A black Honda NSX. Takumi smiled briefly before getting serious again.

They were driving in one of the two main straights of the Suzuka circuit. At the end of the straight, there was a hairpin corner that led to the slow section of the circuit, one that went slightly downhill. Perfect.

Pressing the accelerator a bit further down, Takumi made the FD get as close as possible to the NA-1 and, soon, the Honda driver found himself having to train Takumi's car too. Takumi was grateful Ryosuke had explained to him that by driving so close together, the car in front had an aerodynamic handicap while the one behind could go just as fast with half the effort.

By the time they got to the corner, Takumi had already prepared himself for his next move. Using the extra speed he had saved for that moment, he feigned an inside attack only to brake briefly so he could switch to the outside line when the Honda was closing the inside.

After that, it was just a matter of pushing the car through the space left, overtake the Honda and, just to make sure its driver realised who had overtaken him, Takumi braked again so the team's name, written on a sticker stuck at the rear windscreen, could be visible to the NA-1's driver. Then he pulled away from the Honda.

'You're fucking fantastic!' Keisuke said to him the minute he stepped out of the car.

'I would have paid millions to see his face!' Matsumoto agreed.

Takumi looked at Ryosuke and said:

'You were right, Ryosuke-san,'

'I know, I always am,' he said smiling confidently.

'Yeah, that's not what he says when he speaks to the missus,' Keisuke whispered while passing his arm around his team-mate's shoulders.

'I heard that Keisuke,' Ryosuke said then, he added, 'I can't wait to see the day when you'll be married,'

The whole team laughed at Keisuke's horrified face.

The next day they woke up to find a cloudy day that threatened rain.

'Not good, we'll have to change all the settings if it rains,' Fumihiro complained looking at the latest weather report delivered by one of the circuit's officials.

'Can't be helped,' Ryosuke said, then speaking to the team, he said, 'guys, this is it. Yesterday we were only testing the circuit, today we're fighting for the pole so everyone will be a lot more aggressive, Keisuke, you and Takumi will need to remain focused even more so, no wandering out of the garage, ok?'

'Sure,' Keisuke said while Takumi just nodded.

While the team worked on the car, Keisuke and Ryosuke spent a few minutes talking to each other while Takumi studied the data from the previous day, understanding it all with the help of Fumihiro.

The qualifying session started at exactly eleven o'clock and Keisuke was the first one to have his chance. The pole system allowed for each team to set their best times with their two drivers, these times would be added up together and this combined time was the one which set the time that would count towards the pole.

Keisuke was really lucky for several reasons. The first was that during his run, the car had just been serviced and therefore was at its best possible condition. The second was that there was very little traffic on the track which meant having an almost free way all the way around the circuit. The third was that the track itself was still dry.

Things were much different by the time it was Takumi's turn to do his best lap.

'It's raining,' Fumihiro said stating the obvious.

'Takumi, we'll need to change the settings,' Ryosuke started saying seeing that the young man was climbing into the car.

'No, just change the front tyres,' he said.

'What? Are you nuts?' Matsumoto exclaimed.

'Do as he says,' Ryosuke ordered understanding what Takumi wanted to do at once.

'Thanks,' Takumi said smiling shyly at him.

Takumi drove out of the box a few minutes later with only the two front tyres suitable for the track's current conditions.

'What's he doing?' Fumihiro asked Ryosuke.

'Fumihiro, you're forgetting something important about Fujiwara.'

'What is it?'

'He's used to drive up and down Mt Akina with his 86 changing none or very few of the car's settings. He probably feels he can do much better with the settings he used yesterday,'

'What about Keisuke?'

'Don't worry about that now. After we finish the qualifying we'll decide what to do,'

'Sure,' Fumihiro said, as usual trusting Ryosuke's judgement and, by the time Takumi passed the finish line for the first time in that session, Fumihiro realised that his Team Manager had been right. Takumi's time, albeit a bit slower than Keisuke's, was still the fastest set by all the drivers still out on the track.

'Oh no,' Keisuke said looking at the monitor.

'What is it?' Ryosuke asked joining his younger brother in front of the screen.

The black NA-1 was just behind Takumi.

'Aniki, I swear, if that bastard does anything to our car I'm going to beat him up so badly that his own mother won't be able to recognise him,'

'No need for that, I think Takumi will handle him well enough,' Ryosuke said.

Just as Ryosuke was saying that, the black Honda made his move pushing Takumi's FD towards the inner edge of the track. It was very clear to everybody that the Honda's driver was trying his best to send Takumi's car to the grass.

'No, no!' Takumi shouted and, just as it looked like he was losing ground, he saw something in the track that made him smile.

Lowering his tyres into the circuit's small gutter, he hooked them there and, pressing the accelerator, he passed the Honda that, in the effort of pushing him inwards, had left a very large space and now Takumi used it to his own advantage.

Takumi thought that he was safe when he felt something bumping against the back of his car. This made the car slide dangerously towards the left but Takumi managed to get the car back under his control.

Looking at the rear mirror, he saw the black Honda literally stuck to the FD's bumper. Takumi's brain made a decision in a split-second. He pressed the brake for just a short moment, just enough for the Honda to crash, very lightly, against the back of the Mazda. Then Takumi accelerated again.

Before he had to turn left for one of the corners of the circuit, Takumi saw the Honda going into a wild spin, finally sliding on the wet grass till the car was stopped by the tyre wall which protected the outer wall of the circuit.

This accident made the circuit marshals stop the qualifying session and Takumi was forced to go back into the pit lane.

There, in his team's box, he found a very disturbing scene: the Honda's Team Manager was there with his fist up, held by two circuit officials, threatening a seemingly unconcerned Ryosuke. Meanwhile Fumihiro and Matsumoto were doing their best to hold Keisuke up too.

_To be continued…_


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Sixteen _

Takumi's arrival made everyone stop and stare at him. This made the young man rather nervous and very reluctant of getting out of the car.

'You!' the other Team Manager shouted seeing Takumi.

This made the whole team get in between the FD and the crazed Team Manager acting as some sort of human shield.

'Look, if you have any problem with my driver's attitude, you should file a complaint with the Federation,' Ryosuke said with, in Takumi's opinion, an almost surreal calm tone.

'WHAT?' the guy shouted.

'What's going on in here?'

They all turned round and saw that there was a middle-aged man standing just outside the team's box, next to him stood Bunta's friend, Keiichi Tsuchiya.

'Who in the hell are you?' the team manager shouted.

'This is Harada-sensei, the Race Director,' Keiichi said quite clearly trying to refrain himself from laughing out loud, especially seeing the mortified face of the Honda's Team Manager.

'Er…'

'I asked you a question,' Harada-sensei said.

'Their driver pushed mine out of the track!' he replied with an almost childish tone while pointing at Takumi.

'Did he now?' Harada-sensei said lifting his eyebrows in obvious disbelief, 'I've seen the action myself and, I think it was YOUR driver who tried to push him out of the circuit.'

'I agree,' Keiichi said.

The Honda's Team Manager's eyes widened with surprise.

'But…'

'You're welcome to do as Takahashi-san said and file a complaint but, like Harada-sensei said, it was pretty much clear to us that your driver spun out the track as a direct consequence of his failed attempt at pushing Fujiwara's car out of the circuit. This could, of course, result in the immediate disqualification of your driver. It's your call,' Keiichi said, this time with a wide smile on his face.

The Team Manager seemed to consider his options and, after a brief silence, he said:

'Alright, forget it then.'

With this he just walked out of the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team's garage.

'Well, if this matter is solved, I shall go back to the control room,' Harada-sensei said.

'Okay, thanks for coming,' Keiichi said.

'No problem,' Harada-sensei said before leaving the garage as well.

'Thanks Keiichi,' Bunta said, talking for the first time.

'Don't mention it. Bunta, one friendly bit of advice, you better watch out for that Honda, that Team Manager has quite a reputation to disregard any fair play in the races. He's definitely willing to do anything, and I mean anything, to make his car win.'

'Thanks for the warning, Tsuchiya-san,' Ryosuke said taking a step towards the two men.

'No problem, I should go now. It looks like they're going to forget about the rest of the qualifying session. It's raining way too much and there were only five minutes left anyway.'

'Really?' Fumihiro said intervening, 'this means that.'

'Yes! We're second!' Keisuke exclaimed.

'Not bad for a rookie team! Good luck tomorrow,' Keiichi said then, waved his hand briefly and left.

'I'm sorry,' Takumi said finally having climbed out of the car.

'Why?' Ryosuke said.

'I got the team in trouble.'

'No you didn't. You and Keisuke got us in second place on the GT300 grid,' Ryosuke said shaking his head.

'Yeah but…'

'No buts, I'm proud of you son,' Bunta said.

'Dad, I did push him out of the track,' Takumi said trying to hide the commotion that his father's praise had caused him.

'And you did well,' Ryosuke said.

'What?'

'I would have done exactly the same,' Ryosuke said and Bunta nodded his agreement to that statement.

'Ryosuke-san…'

'Look, we're here to try and win. That Honda's driver was clearly playing dirty and, if you hadn't done what you did, he would have ended up making you crash the car. I don't need to tell you how unhappy that would make me, do I?'

'No, you don't,' Takumi said.

'Then, don't worry about it. However, you and Keisuke should do as Tsuchiya-san has advised us: tomorrow pay extra attention to that Honda. After today's incident, I'm more than certain they'll be after us,' Ryosuke said.

'Count on it Aniki,' Keisuke said.

'We'll be careful,' Takumi added.

'Good. Now, let us celebrate the fact that, I don't know how yet, but we've managed to get us a really good spot on the grid,' Ryosuke said smiling while putting his hands on his brother's and Takumi's shoulders.

'YES!' Keisuke shouted punching the air with his fist.

As soon as they finished tidying up the garage, and after carefully locking it up, the whole team gathered outside the motorhome.

'What shall we do?' Fumihiro asked Ryosuke.

'We can't do anything that would involve a late night.'

'Why not?' Keisuke asked.

'Because you, and Takumi, need to get as much sleep as possible,' Ryosuke replied looking at his younger brother surprised that he had to explain the obvious.

'Ah, yeah…I forgot,' Keisuke said smiling sheepishly.

Ryosuke shook his head and laughed softly.

'Why don't we just go for a nice meal?' Matsumoto asked.

'Yeah, let's do that,' Bunta said.

'Okay, there's a good Italian restaurant near the circuit,' Ryosuke said and Bunta's face crumbled with disgust.

'Dad hates foreign food,' Takumi explained.

'Ah, okay. There's a good ryokan nearby,' Ryosuke proposed.

'Ah, now you're making some sense,' Bunta said smiling.

Everyone laughed at Ryosuke's flustered expression.

'I can't believe that there's another guy other than my father who makes me feel like I'm five,' Ryosuke commented in the van as Fumihiro drove them to the Japanese traditional hotel were they would eat their dinner.

'I know. He makes us all feel like if we were five,' Fumihiro said smirking, then as an afterthought, he said: 'think of this: Takumi was raised by this guy. I'm not surprised that Takumi has so little self-confidence after being brought up by Bunta Fujiwara.'

'You think so? I think Takumi is very confident of his skills. He's just a very quiet guy, that's all,' Ryosuke commented.

'Yeah, those are the most dangerous ones,' Fumihiro said and Ryosuke had the distinct impression that his old friend wasn't talking only about Takumi here.

They arrived at the ryokan and, after waiting for about ten minutes, they were shown to one of the private dinning rooms the hotel had.

They were extremely lucky that there had been a last minute cancellation so they could use one of the largest rooms there. After all, they were ten people and it would have been uncomfortable if they had been forced to use one of the standard rooms.

'There's an even larger party next door so, we apologise if they disturb you in any way,' the ryokan's employee told them pointing at the sliding door next to theirs.

'That's alright, we just need something quick to eat,' Ryosuke said, speaking on behalf of the team.

Twenty minutes later, everyone was enjoying their meal, strictly Japanese traditional food to Bunta's immense satisfaction:

'Except tofu, I like everything else,' Bunta explained.

'Why do you sell it if you don't like it?' Matsumoto asked, voicing the very same question everyone had in their heads.

'I sell it because I don't eat it, if I ate it, I wouldn't sell it,' Bunta said shrugging his shoulders and, seeing the absolute logic in his reply, no one could add anything else.

'Who's taking care of the deliveries now?' Keisuke asked him.

'I made an extra large delivery the day before we came here. I'm sure they'll survive with no tofu for these two days. I'll reassume the deliveries tomorrow night though,' Bunta replied.

'Where are you going?' Matsumoto asked Takumi seeing that the young man getting up from his cushion.

'I'm going to the bathroom,' Takumi said.

He left the room and was about to head to the reception to ask where the loos were, when the door next to theirs slid open.

'Hey! What a coincidence!'

Takumi looked to his left to see Mina-chan's smiling face.

'Yeah,' Takumi said.

'What are you doing...' Mina-chan started, then, realising how stupid her question was, she corrected herself, 'having dinner with your team?'

'Yeah,' Takumi said passing his hand through his hair nervously.

'Going to the bathroom?' she asked then.

'Yeah,' Takumi replied damning himself for being unable to produce anything other than monosyllabic words.

'I'm coming with you then,' she said and Takumi's widened eyes made her add, 'I mean, I'm not coming _with_ you, I'm just…'

Seeing her get flustered made Takumi say:

'I get it.'

Forcing himself to relax, he smiled at her while they walked to the reception together. They asked where the bathrooms were and, ignoring the knowing look from the receptionist, Takumi accompanied Mina-chan to the bathroom's entrance.

'Hey,' she said just as Takumi was opening the gents' door, 'I liked kissing you. Would you have dinner with me tomorrow after the race?'

Takumi was totally unprepared for this and, for quite a few, painful instants, he considered telling her that he had a girlfriend. Then, something evil within himself made him say:

'Alright.'

'I'll get someone to pick you up from your box. I can't do it myself because if I were to be seen with you, you would have no peace from the journalists,' she explained.

'Alright,' he repeated trying to silence the voice that kept telling him that this whole thing was wrong.

'See you tomorrow,' she said and opening the ladies' door, she went inside the bathroom leaving Takumi standing there holding still holding the doorknob.

'Isn't that Mina-chan, the singer?' he heard Keisuke's voice not too far from there.

'Er…yeah…' Takumi asked trying to hide his surprise at seeing his team mate there.

'Takumi, last time I checked, you had a girlfriend,' Keisuke said keeping his voice down.

'I do. We're just friends,' Takumi said feeling his face heat up.

'Really? You're friends with Mina-chan?' Keisuke asked, his voice full of scepticism.

'Yeah,' Takumi said now unable to look at Keisuke in the eye.

'Maybe I'm just being traditional but, in my book, when you have a girlfriend you don't go around kissing other girls and taking them out for dinner, even less if the girl in question is a nation-wide famous singer,' Keisuke said.

Takumi didn't know what to say to that and Keisuke just shook his head before saying:

'I just hope you know what you're doing. By the way, I came to ask you if you wanted any dessert but, I think you've had plenty of sweets tonight,' then he left.

Takumi had a lot of trouble falling asleep that night and, when he got up at eight o'clock in the morning, he found Keisuke in the motorhome's kitchen smiling at him in a really weird way.

'What's up?' Takumi asked almost afraid of his team-mate's answer.

'Oh, nothing, just go outside, will you?'

Takumi obeyed and went down the steps, with Keisuke following him closely. Not far from the motorhome, standing by one of the vans and speaking to his father, Takumi saw the last person he expected to see there: his girlfriend Mika.

'I'm going to love to see how you explain to her about your date,' Keisuke said.

_To be continued…_


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Seventeen_

Trying to ignore Keisuke's words, Takumi walked towards where his girlfriend and his father were.

'Hey,' he said as Mika hugged him shyly.

'Surprise!' she said smiling.

'Yeah,' Takumi managed to say trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible. The truth of the matter was that he was actually happy to see her there, 'I thought you were training for the Tokyo tournament.'

'Yeah, I was. I am actually, the thing is since yesterday it rained so much, they had to cancel today's training session and I called your dad to see if he could get me a pass so I could come here this morning. He did and, here I am. So, you like my surprise?' Mika asked.

'Yeah, I do,' Takumi replied.

'Unfortunately, I have to go back this afternoon but I hope to see at least the start of the race,' she added.

'You won't be here at the end of it?' Takumi asked while Keisuke tried to convert a chuckle into a fit of coughing.

'No, I'm sorry,' Mika said biting her lower lip, 'but I really wanted to see you before the race so I could give you my support.'

'Thanks, I really appreciate this.'

'Don't mention it. Now, your dad and I need to go back to the entrance to get your other surprise.'

'Another surprise?' Takumi asked.

'Yeah, you'll see,' Takumi's dad said intervening for the first time in the conversation. Then, both he and Mika walked away from them.

'Your lucky star is working loads of overtime,' Keisuke said once she was gone. Takumi just glared at him and Keisuke added, 'look, do whatever you want but…'

'Keisuke, please, drop it. I'll tell Mina-chan about Mika, okay?'

'Alright, don't let this distract you from the race though,' Keisuke warned him and, before Takumi could reply, he walked away from an increasingly pissed off Takumi.

Deciding that his energies would be better invested on getting some breakfast, he walked back to the motorhome so he could get something to eat from its kitchenette and, by the time he finished buttering some pieces of toasted bread, he saw several people entering the motorhome.

'HEY! Takumi!' Itsuki screamed loudly making Takumi turn round to see him standing next to Mika, his father and Iketani-sempai.

'Hey guys!' he said and, this time, he was really pleased to see his two oldest friends there.

'You like this surprise too?' Mika said smiling and that made Takumi feel even worse about what had happened the previous day.

'Yeah,' he said trying to return the smile then, speaking to Iketani and Itsuki, he said, 'wanna go for a walk around the paddock?'

'Sure!' Itsuki said.

'Takumi, you can't go. We've got a briefing to attend, remember?' Bunta said.

'Ah, yeah, sorry guys…'

'It's okay, we'll just go ourselves,' Iketani said.

After spending a few minutes with the two guys and his girlfriend, Takumi walked with his father towards the team's garage were everyone was waiting for Ryosuke to come back from the Team Manager's meeting.

The rest of the morning went by extremely quickly for Takumi and, except for the few minutes he was allowed to spend with Mika, he barely had time for anything other than focusing on the upcoming race.

About half an hour before the race was due to start, Takumi and Keisuke were standing outside their box at the pit lane's side when they saw the public sitting at the grandstands suddenly get up and starting to clap.

'What's going on?' Keisuke asked.

His reply came in the form of the circuit's speakers announcing that Mina-chan's show was about to start.

'Takumi! It's Mina-chan!' Mika said rushing him to the other side of the pit lane so they could see the singer from the wall.

'You know her?' Takumi asked.

'I know of her, of course: she's great!' Mika said and Keisuke, who had joined them together with the rest of the team, gave a knowing look at Takumi who, for the second time that day, glared at his team mate.

Takumi then looked back at the podium where Mina-chan would be performing and saw the girl, dressed with an extremely tiny dress and wearing considerably more make up than on the previous evening, stepping onto the podium where the winner of the race would stand at the end of it.

The music started almost immediately and soon Mina-chan's powerful voice filled the whole place. Takumi realised just how charismatic she was when he saw the public singing along to her song.

Then it hit him: there was absolutely no way a girl like that could ever be seriously interested in him. He looked at his girlfriend, who was currently dancing and clapping her hands at the rhythm of the music and decided that the right thing to do was to tell Mina-chan that he already had a girlfriend and that he wasn't interested in cheating on her.

'She's so talented!' Mika said when the show was over.

'And so beautiful,' Itsuki added, obviously daydreaming about the singer.

'What happened to the whole I'm a lonely driver philosophy?' Takumi asked his friend.

'I am a lonely driver, but I still can appreciate when a girl is beautiful and man, that one is just gorgeous! I'd give anything to go out with her.'

'Keep on dreaming Itsuki, a girl like that wouldn't even think of looking at any one of us,' Iketani said and Takumi nearly chocked himself hearing that.

'You're alright?' Mika asked him.

'Yeah, I've got to go now,' Takumi said, deciding he had had enough of the way Keisuke kept looking at him.

'Sure. Let's meet up after the tournament okay?' Mika asked.

'Okay,' Takumi replied and, after receiving a good luck kiss from Mika, Takumi walked back to the garage so he could prepare himself for the race.

Twenty minutes later, Takumi found himself strapped to the bucket seat of his car, with Ryosuke and Bunta standing next to the car's window.

'Takumi, just drive the way you usually do. We're second on the grid in the GT300 category which means that if we manage to overtake the pole holder and keep that position we'll have won the race. Remember that this race can go on for almost two hours so don't get impatient. We'll swap drivers half way through, unless you feel too tired to keep up. Understood?' Ryosuke said.

'Stay focused,' Bunta added.

'Got it,' Takumi said and, with this, he drove out of the garage, cruised along the pit lane and joined the queue of cars that were on their way to the starting grid.

It was rather useless to tell himself to remain calm but, oddly enough, he wasn't so much nervous as he was anxious to start racing. He supposed that the adrenaline rush he was feeling was preventing him from being aware of any fear or any other negative sensation. The only thing he wanted was to be able to floor the accelerator pedal and drive as fast as he could.

That was the only thing his brain allowed him to register. The rest was just pushed to the back of his mind and Takumi was glad of this fact for it meant that he could do just what his dad had told him: focus every bit of his being on the race.

When he arrived at the starting grid, he saw that Matsumoto and Fumihiro were there waiting for him.

'Does everything feel alright?' Matsumoto asked.

Takumi nodded.

'Good. We're going to go back to the pit lane's wall. Should you need to tell us anything, use the radio, ok?'

'Sure,' Takumi said not even bothering with looking at his chief engineer.

'Right. Now, do what you do best: drive as fast as hell.'

'I will,' Takumi said allowing himself a quick glance at Matsumoto.

Five minutes later, with the grid clear of mechanics and other support staff, Takumi and the rest of the drivers focused their attention on the semaphore hanging above them.

Takumi didn't even have the time to compare the feeling he had now to the one he had before one of his countless battles when the semaphore's light went from red to green. Then, every one of his neurons became way too busy accelerating and controlling the car at the same time than keeping an eye on the pole holder, a bright orange Toyota Supra, and the rest of the cars behind them.

The adrenaline rush he had felt earlier was nothing compared to the one he was feeling now.

Trying his best to remember what Ryosuke had told him, he kept himself glued to the Toyota's tail all the way to the first corner. However, the blue Nissan Z32 he had behind had pretty much the same idea so Takumi found himself sandwiched between the two cars.

He definitely didn't like that, also because he knew that the Nissan belonged to the GT300 category too so he could not let it overtake him.

On top of that, as they negotiated first one corner, then the next and then one of the circuit's short straights, Takumi realised that the cars that followed immediately behind the Nissan had no intention whatsoever to let them lead the race for much longer.

Soon, the Nissan started making a move to pass him.

Keep your eyes on the car in front of you, Takumi reminded himself of his father's words and, doing so, he tried his best to forget about all of his Mazda's mirrors.

That microsecond of distraction cost Takumi dearly for, by the time he focused back on the Toyota, he saw that the car was several meters away from him leaving enough room for the Z32 to pass him and get in between his Mazda and the Toyota.

'Shit', he said loudly forgetting about the helmet's fitted mike that connected to the team's radio.

'Don't worry,' came Ryosuke's reply, talking to him with his most reassuring tone, 'take it easy…'

He tried and, by the fourth lap, with his car still firmly in second place but with the Nissan still tailing him, Takumi was sweating like he had never sweated before in his life.

Then, as they started the fifth lap, a white Lamborghini RG-1 appeared from nowhere. Taking a quick look at his rear mirror, he realised that the Nissan was no longer there.

'What?' he heard himself whisper.

'The Nissan's spun out,' Fumihiro said supplying Takumi with an answer, 'be careful with that RG-1.'

Takumi's response to that was to literally floor the accelerator pedal.

'No, let him pass,' Ryosuke said.

'What?'

'Do it,' Ryosuke ordered.

Takumi, fighting against his highly competitive instincts, obeyed and let the RG-1 pass.

'Now watch out and be ready to avoid them,' Ryosuke said, being as cryptic as ever.

Not even half a lap later, Takumi understood the message very clearly: the RG-1, for no apparent reason, tried to crash against the bright orange Supra and the result was not pretty:

The Toyota, closing the RG-1's line, made its driver skid the tyres for a fraction of a second too long and, by the time the RG-1 tried to regain its line, Takumi had already dodged and passed him.

'That driver's a hothead, be careful with him,' Ryosuke said.

'Got it,' Takumi breathed through the mike. Even talking was becoming challenging, especially after seeing the car that followed the RG-1: the black NA-1.

Fantastic, Takumi thought sarcastically, now I have two hotheads instead of just one.

'Ryosuke-san…' he said.

'I know, I've seen him, don't worry about it though, with a bit of your luck, they'll neutralise each other.'

'Okay,' he said, 'by the way, the car's feeling great.'

'Good,' Ryosuke said.

While this was happening at the track, Kenta saw Keisuke sneaking out of the box, clearly believing no one had noticed his departure.

Not wanting him to get in trouble with Ryosuke, Kenta decided to follow him, just to see where he was going.

He saw the youngest of the Takahashi brothers entering the team's motorhome. Kenta debated with himself whether ignore the whole issue or not but, finally, his curiosity got the best of him and decided to enter the motorhome too.

What he found there was a rather disturbing sight.

'Keisuke-san,' he whispered and the spiky haired young man looked up, his eyes widening in horror.

'What the fuck are you doing here?' Keisuke shouted.

'But, Keisuke-san, you're hurt,' Kenta said, almost sobbing.

'It's nothing,' Keisuke shouted again but, seeing Kenta's terrified expression, made him change his tone of voice, 'look, it's just my ankle. I thought it was properly healed but yesterday, during the qualifying session, I felt something crack...'

'Will you be able to race like that?' Kenta said doubtfully, 'shouldn't you tell Ryosuke-san?'

'Kenta, tell Aniki or anyone else about this and I'll kill you,' Keisuke said and, judging by his dangerous tone of voice, Kenta decided to believe that thread.

'I'll go and get you some more ice,' Kenta finally said and, as he was heading out, he added, 'I'll tell the guys you've gone to the bathroom.'

'Yeah, do that,' Keisuke said as he finished removing the rudimentary bandage he had put on himself.

_To be continued…_


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Eighteen_

Kenta came back with the ice and, after applying it for a while, he helped Keisuke by rubbing on some anti-inflammatory ointment and, very carefully, putting the bandage back on.

'How does it feel?' Kenta asked as Keisuke tested his now booted foot.

'Okay. It doesn't hurt anymore,' Keisuke said.

'I…'

'Kenta, thanks for this but, I'm serious, don't tell anyone, alright?' Keisuke said and, this time, he used an almost pleading tone of voice rather than an intimidating one.

Kenta nodded.

'Let's go then,' Keisuke said and Kenta followed him out of the motorhome.

By the time they got to the box, they were confronted by Ryosuke.

'Where have you been?' he asked Keisuke.

'The bathroom,' Keisuke said hoping his highly intuitive brother wouldn't realise he was lying. Ryosuke looked at him for a short while then, shaking his head, he said:

'Alright. We need to call Fujiwara back, are you ready?'

'Of course Aniki but, weren't we going to wait to the twenty fifth lap?'

'Change of plans, look,' Ryosuke said pointing at the monitor where Keisuke saw Takumi looking like he had serious trouble to keep the black Honda behind him.

'What happened to the RG-1?' Keisuke asked.

'The NA-1 pushed him out of the track, now it's in fifteenth place,' Ryosuke explained.

'Yeah, and it's targeting Takumi now,' Fumihiro added.

A few minutes later, Takumi got back to the box and, after a quick pit stop, Keisuke climbed into the car and, having even less time than Takumi to get used to the sensations he felt onboard the FD, he drove all the way down the pit lane and incorporated himself to the track where, luckily enough, there wasn't any incoming car.

'Right, we're down to seventh place, don't worry about it Keisuke, none of the cars from our category which are in front of you have made any stops yet. Just drive as you normally do,' Ryosuke said and Keisuke found it kind of reassuring to hear his brother's voice.

'We aren't doing any more pit stops, are we?' Keisuke asked, using one of the last few moments of peace he would have.

'Yes, we'll need to do a quick refill a few laps before the end of the race. This means that you should save yourself for the last few laps you'll be driving.'

'Understood,' Keisuke said.

Soon enough, and before he had the chance to enjoy being behind the wheel of a racing car in an official race, Keisuke discovered just how very hard it was to, not only keep up with the cars in front of him, but to defend one's position from the ones he had behind.

This was possibly the hardest dogfight he had ever been involved in and, he finally understood the point of having endless training sessions. Compared to what was happening now, they were a joy.

The small portion of Keisuke's brain that wasn't focused on the race wondered whether Takumi had felt the same adrenaline rush that was keeping Keisuke sharper than he had ever been.

There was one thing he understood: he loved this. He definitely loved racing.

Everything was running according to Ryosuke's plans, Keisuke was just taking it easy, maintaining his position watching as the cars in front of his went into their boxes for the pit stop.

He never quite made it to the head of the race because the faster GT500 cars kept overtaking him. This frustrated Keisuke considerably but, either Ryosuke or Fumihiro kept warning him whenever one of these cars came anywhere near him.

The important bit was not to let any of the GT300 cars get ahead of him.

With a pang, he realised that, after all, winning this race was not an impossible dream. He could do it. They could do it. He just needed to hang on for a while longer and, when the time came, build up a gap long enough for the team to do their final pit stop.

Keisuke was beginning to feel incredibly good about this when, suddenly, the back of one of the cars in front of him started wobbling in a very alarming way then, something seemed to give up in that car: one of the rear tyres had exploded causing the car to go completely out of control.

It took him every one of his best abilities to avoid a frontal collision and, as he was twisting his foot to press both the accelerator and the break, he felt a piercing pain in his ankle.

'Shit!' he breathed.

Fighting against the pain, he managed to dodge the spinning car and get back on track. Unfortunately, as he used his foot to press the accelerator, he realised that it was too painful to keep on going.

'Shit,' he repeated, this time loud enough for Ryosuke and Fumihiro to hear him.

'Keisuke, you're alright?' Ryosuke's concerned voice said.

'Yeah, did you see that?' Keisuke said, hoping his voice didn't betray the pain he was in.

'We're just watching the footage. That was way too close,' Fumihiro confirmed.

'You're alright?' Ryosuke asked again.

'Yeah, don't worry…' Keisuke said and, he knew right then that his older brother wasn't buying it but, they had just gone over half the race's distance and there were still many more laps left.

'What's wrong with him?' Fumihiro asked Ryosuke back at the box.

'I don't know, but something's not right: he's lying to me and he never does that,' Ryosuke replied, his voice filled with concern.

Kenta, having overheard the exchange, started feeling torn about keeping Keisuke's secret. He definitely didn't want to betray his mentor but, he was terrified that something could happen to him: after all, even he could tell that Keisuke-san shouldn't have been driving but it was too early for Takumi to get back behind the wheel and to do another pit stop. He'd have to cope with the pain. Kenta didn't know how but he was sure Keisuke would find a way.

Ten laps later, and with his foot's soreness having become almost unbearable, Keisuke received instructions from his box telling him to push it for five more laps before returning for the last pit stop.

Deciding to try his best to ignore the pain, he started driving in a nearly suicidal fashion, even overtaking cars that weren't in his same category. He didn't care. All he wanted was for the five laps to be over so he could climb out of the car. At this point, he was racing against the pain, and the faster he went, the sooner he could get something to relieve the pain.

By the time he started his final lap around the circuit, and he wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or not, his foot was beginning to get numb because of the pain. That didn't help any when he had to get out of the car.

'What's wrong with you?' Ryosuke asked him as the mechanics were doing the pit stop while Takumi got inside the car.

'Nothing,' Keisuke lied uselessly for, judging by Ryosuke's facial expression, his older brother didn't believe him.

'Come with me,' Ryosuke ordered and Keisuke, no longer bothering with hiding his limp, followed him all the way to the garage's back door.

Once outside it, at the paddock area, Ryosuke asked him:

'Why didn't you tell me about your foot?'

'It's nothing…' Keisuke said.

'It's not nothing,' Ryosuke almost barked, 'you are hurt. You could have crashed the car…'

'And of course, that's the only thing you care about!' Keisuke exclaimed.

Ryosuke looked at his brother with a mix of shock and sorrow.

'You really think so?' Ryosuke asked.

'No…I…' Keisuke stammered.

'Good, because even though I must be impartial, Keisuke you, before being anything else, are my brother. I will always care for you more than I care for anyone else in this team.'

Keisuke couldn't remember the last time Ryosuke had verbally expressed his feelings for him this openly and, seeing this rare display of brotherly affection, made him feel even worse.

'Go to the motorhome and put some ice on your ankle. I'll take a look at it later,' Ryosuke said, his voice being back at his usual business-like tone of voice.

'Shit,' he said to himself as soon as Ryosuke had gone back inside their garage, he had just done what he hated and feared the most: making Aniki upset.

Fifteen minutes later, and with his foot now propped up by a couple of cushions, Keisuke was resting his tired body on his bed.

That's how, an extremely happy Kenta found him:

'Keisuke-san! Come on, you've gotta come with me!'

'What? Why?' Keisuke said, realising he had been about to fall asleep.

'We've won! I don't know how we've done it but we've won!'

'Impossible! I'm sure the gap I built up wasn't enough to keep the lead,' Keisuke said.

'I know that Keisuke-san but Fujiwara's last ten turns around the circuit were just like a series of qualifying laps! It was amazing! At some point, his father had to tell him to stop overtaking the cars he found on his way because he was already in front of our category and kept overtaking everyone he found!' Kenta kept talking at a machinegun speed.

'That crazy stupid bastard,' Keisuke said smiling happily. He should have known that Takumi would pull yet another one of his miracles. This one though, was the best one so far: winning their maiden race was even beyond of what Keisuke could ever expect from Takumi.

'Keisuke-san, you need to go up the podium with Fujiwara,' Kenta said.

The entire staff from the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had just gone berserk and soon, both Kenta and Keisuke let themselves be involved in the celebrations. By the time Takumi arrived with the car, things had definitely gone out of control. Even the usually serious executives Kirin had sent to watch the race were now clasping each other's shoulders and laughing out loud.

'Well done son!' Bunta said as tired looking but very happy Takumi got out of the car.

'You can say that Bunta!' Keiichi Tsuchiya shouted from the pit lane, 'You, your son and the Takahashi brothers are certainly something. Did you know that you're one of the very few teams that have ever won the first race they entered?'

Ryosuke's composed and cold expression was faltering dangerously as he joined the two legendary street racers. He felt amazingly good.

The celebrations lasted for quite a while and, after going through the podium ceremony, press conference and photo session, the team gathered outside the motorhome while Ryosuke tended Keisuke's injured ankle.

'Takumi, there's some guy looking for you,' Matsumoto said.

'Ah yeah, I forgot,' Takumi said then, talking to Iketani and Itsuki, he said, 'sorry guys, I have to go for a bit, I'll be back soon.'

'Ah, right, okay,' Iketani said, Itsuki being way too busy admiring everything that surrounded him. Takumi smiled to himself: his best friend seemed to be spending the best day of his life.

If Takumi wanted to be honest to himself, he was also incredibly pleased of this victory. Not only it put them ahead in the championship but it was a huge confidence boost for both him and the team. They couldn't have started better.

Thinking about what he was about to face removed the smile from his face. Following some guy, who had identified himself as a member of Mina-chan's staff, he arrived at one of the private lounges from where the VIP's watched the race.

Mina-can was there, alone, waiting for him. She had changed and, unfortunately, she was no longer wearing that incredibly sexy dress she had been wearing during her performance. She was now wearing a black miniskirt and a white Dolce and Gabbana T-shirt.

'Hey! Congratulations! I've seen your team won the race!' she said getting up and, seeing the smile on her beautiful face made it even more difficult for Takumi to say what he had to say.

'Yeah…look, I'm sorry but I can't go out with you,' he said the minute they were left on their own.

'Why?' she asked, her smile quickly fading off her face.

'I should have told you yesterday: I have a girlfriend,' he said and, even to himself, his words sounded incredibly stupid.

Mina-chan snorted.

'You could have come up with a much better excuse than that,' she said bitterly.

'No, it's the truth,' Takumi defended himself.

'Look, if you don't want to go out with me, just say it. I'm used to being rejected all the time anyway.'

'You are?' he asked refusing to believe anyone in their right mind would ever reject someone like her. Hell, had it not been for Mika, he would have definitely loved to date someone as beautiful as her.

'You'd be surprised how difficult it is for a girl like me to find someone brave enough to date me,' she said sitting back down looking miserable.

Takumi stood there, not knowing what to say.

'I'm sorry,' he said, deciding that was the best he could do.

'You really have a girlfriend, don't you?' Mina-chan asked looking back up at him.

'Yeah, I do.'

'Been together for long?' she asked.

'Almost two years,' he replied.

'Wow, lucky her, my longest relationship ever lasted just over two months,' she commented.

'Look I've got to go now,' Takumi said feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

'Sure. Well, I really like you so, if you ever change your mind, let me know,' she said and Takumi realised that, unbelievably enough, she was serious about it. Now he definitely didn't know what to say.

With a quick wave of his hand, he left her there with the thought that he had just made a very grave mistake nagging at him.

_To be continued…_


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Nineteen_

Hospitals were at the top of things Keisuke hated the most, not only because what they represented to his family but also because he just hated the way they made him feel: completely powerless.

Laying there on the stretcher while the doctor operated the x-ray machine was a bit more than what Keisuke could cope with. He only behaved because he knew that Aniki was watching the whole thing from one of the windows.

Fifteen minutes later, a nice looking nurse rubbed an anti-inflammatory cream on his ankle and bandaged it carefully so his ankle was completely immobilised.

'How bad is it?' he asked his brother the minute Ryosuke stepped into the room accompanied by one of his colleagues. It was the latter who spoke to Keisuke:

'Not as bad as I feared. The point where the bone fractured a few months ago is still very weak and since you put an excessive amount of stress on it, it was beginning to crack. What you have now is just a very thin fissure but if we don't take care of it, there is no way you'll be able to drive.'

'What am I supposed to do?' Keisuke said looking at his brother.

'As little as possible. For at least a week you should just put your foot up and rest. Then we'll do another x-ray to see how the fissure is healing and we'll take it from there,' Ryosuke replied and then looked at the other, more senior doctor who merely nodded his approval.

'A week? Aniki, the next round is...'

'I know. Don't worry about it, the most important thing now is to get that ankle of yours healed properly.'

'I'm not going to have to go through rehabilitation again, am I?' Keisuke asked, almost fearing the answer.

'No, don't worry. Is not as bad as that,' Ryosuke said and Keisuke released a sigh of relief.

'Dr Takahashi, you can take him home if you want,' the doctor said and then both he and the nurse, after being thanked by Ryosuke, left the room.

The ride back home was done in complete silence. Keisuke had been expecting some sort of lecture from his brother but none came. Finally, not being able to cope with the silence, Keisuke said:

'I'm sorry for messing up with the training schedule.'

'Don't worry about it.'

'But…'

'Keisuke, I've already told you, there is nothing we can do about it, so don't worry,' Ryosuke said his usually calm voice showing just a trace of stress.

They spent five more minutes in silence then it was Ryosuke's turn to break it:

'There is one thing I need to ask you though.'

'What is it?'

'Never, and I mean, never keep something like this from me. Not only it completely neutralises any strategy I might have come up with but it's downright stupid and extremely dangerous to drive a racing car in those conditions. Understood?'

'Of course,' Keisuke said feeling utterly mortified, 'I'm sorry.'

Ryosuke didn't say anything else. Not even when he helped his brother out of the car and into their living room where they found an extremely anxious looking Kyoko.

'I'm off to the hospital, I promised Akiko I would take care of the medical reports for her. We'll eat dinner there so don't wait for us,' he said and, without waiting for an answer, he turned round and went back to his car.

'He seems a bit pissed off,' Kyoko commented.

'A bit? He's fuming Kyoko. I'm so stupid: I should have told him that my ankle was feeling sore. He would have done something about it and I wouldn't find myself like this now,' Keisuke said looking so depressed that Kyoko couldn't help but to feel even more worried.

'I made some oyakodon, if you're hungry,' she said.

'I appreciate it but I can't eat anything now,' Keisuke said then, seeing the disappointment on his girlfriend's face, he said, 'okay, bring me a small bowl.'

'Sure,' she said getting up and going to the kitchen.

Five minutes later Keisuke was eating the small portion of food Kyoko had brought him.

'It's good,' he commented.

'I followed Akiko's recipe,' Kyoko said looking very pleased with herself, 'by the way, did you see her or Kyo-chan?'

'I saw Kyosuke in the nursery but I didn't see Akiko, she was busy somewhere else.'

'She works too much,' Kyoko said, 'I kind of miss looking after Kyo-chan.'

'Yeah, I guess it's better for Akiko if her son is at the clinic with her, this way she gets to see him whenever she has a break.'

'Yeah, that's true…I'm just bored, that's all,' Kyoko said.

'Listen, I've been thinking about something for a while,' Keisuke said after a brief silence.

'What is it?' Kyoko asked.

'Well, Fumihiro's good at handling things, his experience as spokesperson of first the RedSuns and then in Project D has made him quite good when it comes to dealing with the press during the races but, I think it would be a good idea to have someone help him…'

'Me?'

'Yeah, why not? I think you'd be a very good PR manager. We need some sort of press officer in the team. This way Fumihiro will be able to focus on helping Aniki…'

'Do you really think I could do it? I mean, I've seen the race on TV and there were so many journalists and…ah, this reminds me: did you get to see Mina-chan?'

'What?' Keisuke said startled at the sudden change of topic.

'If I had known she was performing live at the circuit I would have come with you guys,' Kyoko said.

'You like her?'

'Oh yes! I have all of her albums!' Kyoko said.

'If I had known I would have asked Takumi to get her autograph for you,' Keisuke commented.

'Takumi knows her?' Kyoko asked with her voice full of surprise.

'Ah…yeah, long story…' Keisuke replied.

'Oh please: tell me!' Kyoko begged.

'Wow,' Kyoko said after Keisuke had explained to her everything that had gone on during the weekend of the race.

'Yeah, thankfully he told her he's got a girlfriend,' Keisuke said.

'At least he was honest,' Kyoko commented.

'Yeah, but putting yourself in that kind of situation is stupid. If you've got a girlfriend, you should stay away from other women,' Keisuke said and Kyoko beamed and, bending towards him, kissed him.

'What's that for?' Keisuke asked laughing.

'For being such a good boy,' Kyoko said.

Keisuke laughed even more at that.

A few days later, Takumi was preparing himself for his much anticipated date with Mika when his mobile phone rang.

'Hello?'

'Hi, it's Itsuki! What are you doing?'

'I'm off to pick Mika up, why?'

'Ah, girlfriend night, huh?' Itsuki said and then Takumi could hear him talk to someone else, probably Iketani and Kenji, 'the guys and I are off to Mt Akina for a drive and we thought you might want to join us, but if you have plans with Mika-chan, well, there's nothing we can do…'

'We could meet up this weekend,' Takumi said all too aware of the fact that, lately, he hadn't been paying much attention to his friends.

'Really?' Itsuki asked.

'Sure. I'll call you, okay?' Takumi said and, looking at his watch, he realised that he was running late, 'I've got to dash now, so I'll speak to you later, okay?'

'Sure,' Itsuki said and Takumi could tell that he had just made his best friend very happy.

'Dad, I'm off,' he said as he crossed the Fujiwara's small living room.

His father didn't even lift his eyes from the paper. Takumi shook his head and smiled.

He headed outside to where his beloved AE86 was parked. Getting back inside his car still made him feel like he was finally back home after a tiring day. He could relax on the bucket seat, turn the ignition key and hear the familiar and reassuring sound of his Toyota's engine.

This was pure bliss for Takumi.

Driving under the speed limits, he reached the train station where he knew Mika would be waiting for him. He had planned for them to go to see a movie and then they would get something to eat, drive to the lake and spend some time there, just talking.

After the Mina-chan incident, Takumi really needed to see Mika.

As they had agreed, he saw her sitting on one of the benches at the square in front of the station. He parked the 86 and got out of it so he could greet her properly.

After sharing a kiss, he hugged her tightly and allowed himself to rest his face against the softness of her hair: it smelled of vanilla.

'Hey, someone's been missing me,' she said her voice sounding muffled by his chest.

'Yeah, I have,' Takumi said with such honesty in his voice that he surprised even himself.

'Let's go, the movie is going to start soon,' she said looking weirdly flustered. Takumi didn't even pay attention to that, he was too happy to be able to spend a whole evening with his girlfriend.

He drove the short distance between the station and the shopping centre where the cinema was talking about the race.

'Sorry, I'm I boring you?' he asked as they walked to the elevator that would take them from the parking up to floor where the cinema was.

'No, it's alright. I missed more than half of the race so.'

'I still can't believe we won. I mean, it's confusing because in Super GT we have both GT500 and GT300 categories racing together which means that you're not sure whether you're first or not unless the people from your team tells you. It's really weird.'

'I see,' Mika said and her unusually quiet attitude started making Takumi feel uneasy.

''You're alright?' Takumi asked and, for a second, he had the wild theory that maybe somehow she had found out about Mina-chan and…

'I'm okay, don't worry about me,' she said.

'Alright,' Takumi said and, even though he didn't believe her, he decided to just let it go. They hardly saw each other these days and, for once they could spend a few hours together, he didn't want to ruin it by starting an argument.

They watched the movie, some silly romantic comedy that Mika loved but Takumi had to fight with himself not to fall asleep half way through.

'What should we get?' Takumi asked Mika faced with the choice of getting some fast food or a more traditional Japanese snack.

'Hamburgers?' she said.

'Okay,' he said taking her hand and walking inside the restaurant with her.

They were still laughing at something she had said as they made their way back to the car so Takumi could drive them to the Mt Akina's lake.

'Takumi, I need to tell you something,' Mika said as he was about to turn the car's engine on.

'What is it?' he said and, something in the tone of her voice made him remove his hand from the ignition key and look at her.

'I didn't want to tell you before the race because I didn't want to disturb your concentration…' she started then, she looked down at her lap.

'What is it?' he repeated and, this time, he knew that whatever she wanted to tell him, it wasn't good news.

'My father's being transferred,' she said.

'Transferred?' Takumi asked not understanding what she was saying. Since she wasn't living with her parents anymore he failed to see why this mattered to her.

'He and Mum are going to be sent by my dad's company to the US office,' she said and Takumi started fearing the worse.

'And?' he asked.

'Well, you know how big golf is in the US…' she said.

'You're going to go with them, aren't you?' he asked her gathering the strength to keep talking from goodness knew where.

'Yeah,' she said.

'What about us?' Takumi said and he realised that his knuckles were getting white due to the intensity of his grip on the steering wheel.

'I've been thinking a lot about that. I don't think it's fair of me to ask you to wait for whenever I come back to Japan, because I don't even know if I will ever come back to Japan. Besides, with your racing career having taken off, we would have seen each other less and less…'

'What are you saying Mika?' he asked even though he had already got the message loud and clear.

'I think it's better if we break up Takumi,' she said, her tone of voice indicating that there wasn't any room for negotiation.

Takumi just felt as though as someone had punched him on the stomach.

_To be continued…_


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty_

Takumi drove all the way from the shopping centre to Mika's house with the automatic pilot he used to drive up Mt Akina's uphill whenever he did the deliveries for his father.

He felt so numb that he barely noticed Mika getting out of the car, much less when she said that she'd keep in touch. As if he cared…

He was sick and tired of women, they didn't make any sense and he really didn't have the energy to try and understand them.

'To hell with them,' he said feeling almost as upset as when he had found out about Natsuki's extracurricular activities.

Seeing how pissed off he was, he decided to go to Mt Akina to give vent to his frustration before he could do anything stupid that would end up with him blowing the 86's engine up. Also, if he remembered correctly, the gang should be there and he desperately needed Itsuki and his almost phenomenal abilities when it came to cheering Takumi up.

As he drove up to the top of Mt Akina, he decided that the car was way too quiet for his liking, so he turned on the radio not even bothering to check which station was selected.

'…like we promised, we have in our studio, for tonight's only, one of the best singers of the moment: Yoshimura Minami-san, Mina-chan to all of us…'

Takumi swore. Of all nights, he had to hear her on the radio tonight?

He was about to turn the radio off when, probably some masochistic instinct, made him listen to the interview:

'So, how are things these days Mina-chan?' the guy from the radio asked after Mina-chan had greeted the listeners.

'The new album's selling well and the tour's preparations are going just as expected so, I'm happy,' she said.

'There were some rumours about you and Nakazawa-san…'

'Oh not that again!' she complained, 'I've already stated that Nakazawa-san and I are friends. It just happened that we met to do one commercial together and everyone started thinking we were dating. It was rather annoying really. Especially because he's already seeing someone else.'

'Ah really? Who?' the guy said getting absurdly happy.

'As if I'm going to tell you that,' she laughed.

'Mina-chan, are you telling us that there is no one special in your life now? Can we hope that you're still free?' he said and, at that point Takumi was about to turn the radio off for the guy was beginning to seriously get on his nerves.

'As it happens, there is one person I like,' Mina-chan said making Takumi stop his hand as it went to press the radio's button to turn it off, 'I recently met this guy: he's really nice and very cute.'

'Ah, and?' the radio speaker asked with fervent curiosity.

'I asked him out but he told me that he's got a girlfriend. I guess I'm really unlucky with guys,' Mina-chan said, trying her best to laugh it off.

'What? No way I can believe that! What kind of idiot would say no to you?' the interviewer said and, at this, Takumi decided he had heard enough and turned the radio off.

He had just been called an idiot, live and on a national radio station. It couldn't get much worse than that, he thought bitterly as he arrived at the point where the Akina Speed Stars usually parked their rides.

There were only two: Itsuki's AE85 and Kenji's RS13. Iketani's S13 was nowhere to be seen.

'Hey! I thought you were going out with Mika?' Kenji said as Takumi got out of his car.

'Yeah, well…change of plans,' he said not yet ready to admit that he no longer had a girlfriend.

'Ah good!' Itsuki said, as usual unable to see that Takumi looked a bit sadder than normal.

'Yeah, where is Iketani-sempai?' Takumi asked and he almost laughed at the extremely offended-looking faces of Kenji and Itsuki.

'That traitor! Don't even say his name in front of me…' Kenji said making Takumi feel confused.

'What has he done?' he asked and it seemed to Takumi that Itsuki and Kenji were making an effort not to explode. Finally, Itsuki spat:

'He's gone out with Mako-chan! Can you believe it?'

'What? How did that happen?' Takumi asked lifting his eyebrows in disbelief. The last thing he knew of the whole Iketani-Mako affair was that he hadn't made it on time for their first date and things had just cooled off ever since.

'Well, the traitor ran into her someplace near Usui and, the cheek of him, he told her if she wanted to go for a meal with him,' Kenji explained hitting his chest with his fist as if trying to make it physically evident how very hurt he was.

'That's good for them, isn't it?' Takumi asked and the twin glares he got made it clear that both his friends utterly disagreed with him.

'Anyway, let's not waste any more breath talking about that traitor,' Kenji said, 'that race, Takumi, we were so proud of you! I can't believe you guys won your first ever professional race.'

'I can, I've always known that Takumi was special,' Itsuki said getting a look from Takumi that expressed his scepticism at that last remark.

'That's why you kept calling me 'spaced out boy'?' Takumi asked and, the small smile that was beginning to form on his lips made him realise that his decision to go and see his best friend had been spot on.

'Let's go for a drive,' Itsuki said changing topic once more.

'For old times' sake!' Kenji exclaimed.

'Yeah, I'd like that,' Takumi said and then the three of them climbed into their rides. They agreed to follow Takumi or, rather, try to keep up with him as they drove downhill.

Takumi, not wanting to lose them, just cruised down taking it so easy that he even had time to see the bits of the guardrail that needed to be replaced. Including the one where, ages ago, Iketani-sempai had crashed his S13.

By the time the three of them had made it all the way down to their hometown, Takumi had made his mind up about his love life or lack of thereof: from then on, he would just focus on his racing career. After all, and since Mika had chosen golf over him, he would too concentrate all his energies on getting faster and faster.

The pain and sorrow his broken heart caused would, with time, fade away. It had been the same when Natsuki had broken his heart so Takumi knew that he would survive this time too. Or at least, he hoped. One thing was sure: he would never allow any woman to mess with him anymore.

The weekend after, the Takahashi's were enjoying a meal altogether at their house.

'This is nice, having all the family together,' Akiko commented looking over the table at her husband, Keisuke and his girlfriend Kyoko.

'I know,' Ryosuke said taking the hand Akiko had on the table.

'We should do this more often,' Keisuke said and a happy sounding gurgle came from the head of the table where Kyosuke was sitting on his highchair.

'I think Kyo-chan agrees with you,' Kyoko said smiling fondly at her de-facto nephew.

'This reminds me, my father would like us and your parents to go for dinner at his house,' Akiko said talking to Ryosuke.

'Is he strong enough for that?'

'Yes, he's feeling much better these days. He's been out of bed for the entire day in this last week,' she commented.

'Oh, is he going to go back to work?' Kyoko asked.

'No, I don't think so. To be honest, I think he's enjoying this break more than he wants to admit, I don't think we're going to be seeing him back at heading the Arakawa Group anytime soon,' Akiko replied.

'I'm sorry to hear that,' Keisuke said.

'Your father is doing an excellent job at replacing him so we're not missing him too much,' Akiko said with her usual, almost brutal honesty.

'I hope he doesn't make you deal with more than what you can cope with,' Ryosuke said.

'No, he's great. We're getting along remarkably well. We have more or less the same points of view regarding the way a hospital should be run,' Akiko said making both Ryosuke and Keisuke look a bit freaked out, 'don't worry, I'm not going to become your dad's best buddy…' Akiko added laughing softly.

'Now, that's a relief…' Keisuke said making everyone laugh.

'Ah, and James sends his regards to you all,' Akiko commented.

'You finally got word from him?' Ryosuke asked.

'Yes, he's been trying to find someway to get in touch but, you know, in the middle of the Amazonian forest is not so easy getting to an Internet Point.'

'He's in the Amazonian forest?' Keisuke asked.

'Yeah, he got sent there by Oxfam to help one of the Amazonian tribes,' Akiko explained.

'That sounds kind of dangerous though,' Kyoko said.

'It is. He's been unable to communicate with anyone for ages. I've been worried sick about him,' Akiko said frowning.

'He's okay, isn't he?' Ryosuke asked.

'Yes, thank goodness,' Akiko said, 'I'm kind of jealous that he's doing so much stuff down there though.'

Ryosuke looked at her with concern.

'Oh, don't worry. I have my own mission here,' she said looking first at Kyo-chan and then back at him. She smiled at him tenderly and they spent a few instants just looking at each other.

'Should we get the dessert?' Kyoko said making Akiko remove her gaze from her husband's face to look at her.

'Yes, come and give me a hand,' she said and both women got up from the table to go to the kitchen.

'Hey, Aniki,' Keisuke said whispering in a really weird way.

'What?' Ryosuke said.

'You and Akiko seem to be quite happy,' he commented, still whispering.

'We are,' Ryosuke said not really knowing what the point of this conversation, if any, was.

Keisuke spent a few seconds quiet then he said:

'You haven't had any second thoughts after marrying her?'

'What?' Ryosuke said getting worried about Keisuke's highly unusual behaviour.

'Don't get me wrong, it's just that I…well, I just want to…oh, forget it,' Keisuke said.

Ryouske observed his flustered younger brother for a moment before saying:

'No. I haven't had second thoughts after marrying Akiko. I think marrying her was the best decision I've made in my whole life. Granted, if I could have chosen, I wouldn't have got married so soon but now, seeing how things have turned out to be, I wouldn't change a single thing about how my life is. Why are you asking?'

'Oh…I…' Keisuke said then, looking over to the door, as if making sure no one could hear them, he whispered, 'do you think it's too early for me to marry Kyoko?'

Ryosuke was startled by this question but he kept his cool and composed mask.

'If you have to ask me this question maybe it is,' he said.

'Ah,' Keisuke said.

'But again, I'm not the best person to ask. I never had the chance to consider such things so I don't have a first hand experience on it. I guess that you should seek the answer to that question within yourself…'

Keisuke looked at his brother for a short while then he said, keeping his tone of voice very low:

'I've had had this idea: if we win the championship, I'll propose to her.'

Ryosuke lifted his eyebrows and said:

'Keisuke, you know how unlikely that is? Not to mention the fact that you're injured.'

'You said that with the right support my ankle will be fine and, we've already won a race,' Keisuke insisted.

'Yes, but that doesn't mean we're going to win the championship. I hope you realise that us winning that race has just made it even more difficult for us to carry on winning,' Ryosuke said.

'Why is that?' Keisuke asked.

'Well, for starters, all the teams are going to be targeting us, the competition is going to be so fierce that it'll be a miracle if we get any more points in this championship,' Ryosuke replied.

'A miracle you say,' Keisuke said.

'Yes,' Ryosuke nodded.

'Then I better go shopping for an engagement ring,' Keisuke said and Ryosuke's confused face made him add, 'Aniki, we have Takumi Fujiwara with us. If there is anyone who can perform miracles, that's him…'

'You've got a point there Keisuke,' Ryosuke said.

'Like I said, I better go shopping…'

'Shopping? What for?' Kyoko said coming into the room with Akiko carrying a tray with the desserts.

'Ah, I need a new pair of boots,' Keisuke said and Ryosuke had to stifle a chuckle.

'Amazing recovery,' a smirking Ryosuke mouthed to his younger brother when Kyoko was looking away.

_To be continued…_


	22. Chapter Twenty One

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty One_

Takumi and his father travelled all the way to the Motegi circuit in complete silence. This wasn't so rare for both father and son since they were used to spending large amounts of time without talking to each other, not because they had had an argument, it was simply because they didn't feel like talking.

For Fujiwara Bunta, this meant that his mind was somewhere else, probably thinking of new ways to set up either his GC8 or the team's FD, or maybe thinking of new crazy manoeuvres to try while driving Mt Akina's downhill.

Takumi, however, was just very depressed and was trying hard not to think about anything. Mika had called him from the airport telling him she was leaving for the US and wishing him good luck for the race. Even though it had been over three weeks since she had broken up with him, Takumi was still very pissed off with her and not quite ready to forgive her.

'What's up with that face?' Bunta suddenly asked as he parked the van at the circuit's car park.

'Nothing,' Takumi said.

'That face is saying something,' Bunta said but, for the sake of not arguing with his son, probably because he was way too lazy to do that, he just dropped it.

Takumi trained his facial features to remove every trace of sulkiness from it. He knew that if his father had noticed, so would Ryosuke-san and he really wanted to avoid any questions from him. He also knew that it was rather silly of him to keep his and Mika's split a secret from everyone because, sooner or later, they'd end up finding out anyway.

He still wasn't ready to tell them yet and, in any case, he didn't know how to.

As Bunta went with Matsumoto to help unload the car and set up the garage, Takumi went to the motorhome to get into his racing suit.

He found the Takahashi brothers in the motorhome small living area where Ryosuke was putting on a supportive bandage on Keisuke's ankle.

'Are you alright?' Takumi asked his team mate.

'Yeah, Aniki's told me that the fissure is pretty much healed but, just in case, I'll have to race with a special support from now on,' Keisuke explained.

'I've also said that you've got to be careful with your foot…' Ryosuke added looking at his brother.

'I know, Aniki, I know…' Keisuke said.

'Guys, almost ready?' Kyoko asked poking her head through the motorhome's open door.

'Not quite, why?' Ryosuke asked.

'There are a couple of journalists here who want to speak to you,' Kyoko said.

'Okay, we'll see them after the briefing,' Ryosuke replied.

'Sure,' Kyoko said leaving the three of them alone again.

'She's taking her new job seriously,' Ryosuke commented.

'You've got no idea how serious she is whenever she sets her mind on something,' Keisuke explained.

'I can imagine,' Ryosuke said laughing softly, 'now, you two get ready, we'll be at the box waiting for you.'

'Is Mika coming to see this race?' Keisuke asked Takumi the instant Ryosuke had left the motorhome.

Making a vague sound, Takumi went inside the small room he occupied during the races to get changed. Keeping this secret was just getting harder and harder for him.

Both drivers made their way to the box where, after a short briefing during which Ryosuke informed them about the characteristics of the track, the weather's predictions and the technical data they needed to set the car up.

As Ryosuke handed them their instructions for the first free practice session, Kyoko also told them that the two journalists would interview both Keisuke and Takumi separately. They worked for one of the main newspapers in Japan and they were putting together the profiles of every one of the Super GT drivers.

Takumi's interviewer was a man not much older than himself who looked way too friendly for Takumi to feel at ease with him.

'So, Fujiwara-san, you've become quite a sensation since you crossed the line in first position for the GT300. How did you start your racing career?' the guy asked even before Takumi had sat down at the table where the journalist was.

'I…er…' Takumi said looking at the tape recorder the journalist was holding.

'Don't mind the recorder,' he said.

'Well, I guess, I started with street racing,' Takumi said trying to do his best to ignore the machine.

'Ah, yeah, not a very conventional way of racing, is it?'

'No, not really,' Takumi agreed.

'How many years have you been racing?'

'Just a bit over two,' Takumi replied.

'Really? Wow, then you must be awfully talented!' the journalist exclaimed.

'I don't know,' Takumi said beginning to feel slightly hot.

'Oh, don't be so modest,' the journalist said, 'with your looks and your talent, the girls must surely love you.'

As Takumi started to have some serious doubts about the guy's sexual tendencies, the journalist fired yet another question at him:

'Tell me, do you have a significant other at the moment?'

'Er…no…' Takumi said not being fully aware of anything anymore. This guy's questions were confusing him so much that, by the end of the interview, Takumi couldn't even remember half of the answers he had given.

That day Takumi decided he didn't like journalists and he definitely didn't like to give interviews, thank goodness his job as a professional racer meant that he spent most of the time locked up inside the car doing what he liked best: driving as fast as he could.

The free practice session went remarkably well and they managed to test all the settings Ryosuke and Fumihiro had come up with the priceless help from Bunta so, that evening, everyone went to bed relatively happy of what they had achieved during the day.

A loud noise woke Takumi up the next day.

'Hey! Takumi! Wake up!' he heard Keisuke shout.

'What's up?' Takumi said opening the small sliding door, wearing his oldest t-shirt, his boxers and with his hair all messed up.

'Is this true?' Keisuke said pushing a newspaper into Takumi's hands.

He picked it up and started reading about the public transportation's delays in Tokyo. He looked at Keisuke confusedly.

'Not this idiot! This!' Keisuke exclaimed turning the paper round to show him the last page of it, where the sports information could be found.

Then he saw it: a list of all GT300 drivers, with names, ages and a short interview. His name was there, next to Keisuke's and, in the information regarding him, he saw the following words:

'Fujiwara Takumi is single and is still looking for a girlfriend: maybe one of our readers will be the lucky one!'

Takumi's heart skipped a beat.

'What happens if Mika reads this?' Keisuke asked and, his angry face transformed Takumi's confusion and dismay into fury.

'She WON'T read this, because she's GONE!' Takumi shouted.

'Gone? Where?' Keisuke asked, now being his turn to feel confused.

Takumi looked at his team mate and considered telling him to mind his own business and to get lost but then, remembering he was talking to an ex-gangster who got as easily pissed off as himself, Takumi decided to tell him the truth:

'She left three days ago to go to the US with her family. She's going to live there and dedicate herself to her golfing career.'

Keisuke looked at Takumi obviously feeling sorry for him.

'And she broke up with you?'

Takumi nodded.

'Wow…' Keisuke said, 'I'm sorry.'

Takumi and Keisuke just remained there, not knowing what to do next.

'We should go,' Takumi finally said.

'Yeah, listen, I'm going to tell the guys not to ask you any questions, okay?' Keisuke said.

Takumi just shrugged before turning round to go and get changed. He no longer cared now that everyone in the nation knew about his being single. He only hoped Itsuki and the guys wouldn't get too pissed off when they found out. Itsuki was very sensitive when it came to not being told about what went on in Takumi's life by Takumi himself.

True to his word, Keisuke had made sure that no one in the box went anywhere near mentioning the newspaper's article and so, the entire day went without a glitch.

The car, as usual, felt quite good as Takumi got in it and drove it down the pit lane. Motegi's circuit was very different from Suzuka and even more different than the small circuit the team used for their private testing.

Even so, Takumi still appreciated that Motegi did seem easier than Suzuka. Maybe it was the fact that compared to Suzuka, Motegi's corners were a lot less sharp and the straights not quite as long. Having honed his skills in the mountain passes, Takumi preferred a circuit with plenty of corners.

'Takumi, be careful with the traffic in front of you,' he heard Ryosuke-san's voice through the radio. He liked that his Team Manager no longer used his surname to call him, even if Ryosuke probably did it to avoid any confusion when talking to Takumi and his father.

The young driver realised what Ryosuke was talking about when, after one of the left hand corners he saw three cars lined up on one of the circuit's short straights.

This made him slow down considerably, ruining his flying lap in the process.

'Don't worry, you still have a good five laps to set your best time,' Fumihiro added.

Takumi was about to reply to that when the car in front of him, probably because its driver was getting impatient, did something stupid: trying a suicidal manoeuvre, the driver tried to pass the two cars in front of him. Unfortunately, he didn't consider that all of them were approaching a relatively sharp right turn and, just as the two cars in front turned, the third one crashed into one of them.

Takumi only had the time to drive out of the track in order to avoid them but, with his lucky star apparently having taken some time off, he felt the FD's front tires skid on a wet patch of grass making him go a lot faster than he had originally intended.

His car stopped abruptly as it grazed the wall of tyres protecting the cement one.

'Takumi? You're alright?' he heard Ryosuke ask as Takumi forced himself to release the steering wheel from his grasp.

'Yeah,' he said, 'I don't think the car got hit, I may have scratched the paint though…'

'Can you re-start it?' Ryosuke asked and Takumi tried pushing the button that started the car's engine. It started without any problems.

'Yeah, it sounds fine,' Takumi said.

'Okay, take it back inside. We need to make sure everything is fine before we send you back outside,' Ryosuke ordered.

Takumi did so and, even though the car was fine, he and Keisuke only managed to get a meagre ninth place in the grid.

'Hey, don't worry. We're still in the first five rows. The race is long and we can make up for this…' Ryosuke said trying to make his drivers feel better, 'how's your foot Keisuke?'

'It's doing well Aniki.'

'Good,' Ryosuke said and, as he was going to say something to Takumi, the three of them saw a very annoyed-looking Matsumoto walking towards them.

'Takumi, there's some arrogant guy outside who wants to speak to you.'

'It's not a journalist, is it?' Takumi said freaking out.

'No, he's way too well dressed to be a journalist,' Kyoko said joining them.

'Okay, can I go?' Takumi asked Ryosuke who simply nodded.

Takumi stepped out of the box into the paddock area where he found a guy whose impeccable, designer suit made him look completely out of place.

'Fujiwara-san,' he asked and Takumi nodded, 'Please follow me.'

He followed him to a black car parked nearby.

'It's safe,' he said talking through the partially opened window of the car's passenger side.

The door opened and, as she climbed out of the car, an upset looking Mina-chan said:

'I thought you had a girlfriend. Why did you lie to me?'

Takumi looked at her and then at the guy who looked as if he was pissed off by being there. It was obvious to Takumi that the guy was there against his wishes.

'I didn't lie to you,' Takumi said not really knowing why he was explaining himself with her.

'Then how do you explain this?' she said holding a copy of the paper where the infamous article had been published, 'this is a serious newspaper and they never publish things that cannot be verified so don't try to tell me that they're lying…'

'In fact, they aren't. I no longer have a girlfriend,' Takumi finally admitted.

'You don't?' Mina-chan said her face brightening up like a Christmas tree.

'No, I don't,' Takumi confirmed.

'Ah, in that case, my offer is still valid,' she said shocking Takumi in the process.

Recovering as fast as he could, Takumi reminded himself of his resolution to focus on his racing career.

'I'm sorry but so is my answer,' he said and Mina-chan now looked as if he had slapped her.

'But you said you no longer have a girlfriend,' she said as her eyes filled with tears.

'Yes, but I'm not ready to date anyone now, I'm sorry,' Takumi said and he had the distinct impression that the guy, probably Mina-chan's manager by the looks of him, wanted to beat the crap out of him.

Mina-chan looked at Takumi with twin tears crossing her beautiful cheeks then she turned her gaze towards her manager and said:

'You were right. Let's go.'

She got back inside the car and the manager, after giving Takumi a dirty look, got behind the wheel and drove off leaving Takumi standing there.

_To be continued…_


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Two_

The race itself had been such a disaster that everyone in the team was only too happy to pack up and leave the circuit.

To begin with, the Race Director had to start the race twice. The first time, one of the cars had stalled in the grid and the one immediately behind had crashed against it. It took the race marshals some good ten minutes to clear the mess away so they could proceed with the second start.

Then, the second time, Keisuke was behind the wheel and, because of yet another accident, he was forced to pass between the impossibly narrow path the two crashed cars had left him. He scratched the car in the process and, as he drove over the debris, one of the tyres got a puncture so Keisuke had to drive the first lap at a very low speed so he could get back into the boxes to change the tyre.

With that, the rest of the race was just an uphill battle. The only consolation, if one could call it such, was that they didn't cross the finish line last. The race's multiple incidents meant that the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team finished the race in 4th position in the GT300 category. Not even a podium finish.

For this reason, the atmosphere wasn't the best as the team got everything packed into the vans and prepared themselves to head back home. Takumi's mood was even darker than the rest of the team's but, since they had just found out about his split, they all thought it was pretty normal for him to be even more depressed than usual.

No one, of course, was aware of what had happened the previous day with Mina-chan and Takumi was very grateful for he was definitely not going to tell anyone about that. He had never been any more desperate to get back home so he could lock himself in his room and isolate himself for a while.

The team arrived at their base at the test circuit and, before disbanding, Ryosuke said:

'I'll take a couple of days to analyze the data and after that I'll call you all to talk about the race. Take these two days to rest, okay?'

Everyone was extremely pleased to comply with this order.

Bunta and Takumi climbed into the Impreza and, while his father drove them back home, Takumi stared out of the window.

'Takumi,' Bunta said, breaking the silence.

Takumi turned his head to face his father and said:

'Uh-huh?'

'If you wanna talk about Mika…'

'No offence Dad, but I really don't want to talk about it,' Takumi said interrupting his father thinking that, even if he wanted to speak about his break up, his father would probably be the last person he would do so with.

'Fair enough,' Bunta said and turned his attention back on the road ahead.

They spent the rest of the trip in complete silence and, as Takumi was heading upstairs to go to his room, his father said:

'Remember you've got the deliveries tomorrow morning.'

'Yeah, I know,' Takumi said.

He then locked himself in his room and, lying on his bed still fully clothed, he fell asleep. He woke up a few hours later with his forehead soaked in cold sweat and even if he couldn't remember what it had been about, it was obvious that he had had a horrible nightmare.

In any case, he felt way too restless to be able to fall back asleep so, even though there were still a good two hours before four o'clock, he decided to get up and have a shower. After that, he went downstairs and found his father watching TV as he waited for the tofu to be ready to be cut.

'Can't sleep?' Bunta said looking genuinely surprised for, usually, Takumi could sleep through an earthquake.

Takumi shook his head as he walked towards the kitchen to make himself some tea. He went back into the living room, sat down at the table and drank his tea as he watched TV with his father.

Then, for the first time in ages, Takumi helped his father with the tofu. Together they loaded it into the car.

'Dad, tonight's the Impreza…' Takumi said as he saw his father walking towards the 86.

'Nah, I'll let you drive your car. I think you need it,' Bunta said and Takumi was silently grateful for that.

Once onboard the 86, Takumi drove off towards Mt Akina where, as usual, Takumi was able to gather up all his thoughts so he could put them in order.

Meanwhile, at the Takahashi's, Kyoko and Keisuke were lying on the latter's bed both unable to fall asleep.

'What's up?' Kyoko asked her boyfriend seeing his troubled expression.

'I'm worried…'

'About the race?' Kyoko asked.

'No, about Takumi,' he replied.

'Yeah, it was horrible of Mika to dump him like that…' Kyoko commented.

'Yes, and think that he said no to that Mina-chan girl because of her,' Keisuke said.

'Oh gosh, I had completely forgotten about that!' Kyoko said suddenly sitting up on the bed.

'Lucky you, I can't forget I was the one who insisted he had to stay faithful to Mika…' Keisuke said.

'Keisuke, this is so not your fault,' Kyoko protested as Keisuke too sat up on the bed with his legs crossed in front of him.

'I should have stayed out of it and let him make the decision,' Keisuke insisted, 'at least I wouldn't feel guilty now.'

'You couldn't know she was going to break up with him,' Kyoko reminded him.

'I know,' Keisuke said, still looking rather miserable.

'Come here, I'll give you a massage,' Kyoko said walking on the bed with her knees and getting behind Keisuke.

'If you insist,' Keisuke said laughing softly and, meanwhile Kyoko kneaded his muscles with her hands, Keisuke allowed himself to relax so his brain could start working on some sort of plan to help his team mate out.

The next morning, Bunta woke his son up telling him he had a phone call.

Still half asleep and with the tiredness typical of whenever one didn't sleep properly, Takumi picked the phone up.

'What's up?' he grunted.

'YOU BASTARD!' Itsuki shouted on the phone.

Good morning to you too, Takumi thought sarcastically. Alright, Itsuki had found out about his split from Mika and was now angry about it.

'Look, I was going to tell you,' Takumi started.

'Tell me what? That you've become suddenly single or that you've made Mina-chan cry?' Itsuki asked angrily.

This made Takumi wake up at once.

'What are you talking about?' Takumi asked thinking that there was absolutely no way on earth his best friend could have found out about his conversation with Mina-chan.

'It's all over the press this morning! Haven't you even read the paper this morning?' Itsuki said and from somewhere within himself, Takumi began to feel uncomfortably panicked.

'You haven't, have you?' Itsuki said with a much calmer tone of voice, finally registering that maybe, just maybe, his friend didn't have the foggiest about what was printed in the morning paper.

'No,' Takumi said making an effort to even speak, 'hold on…'

Letting the receiver hang freely off the phone, he walked towards where his father usually left the newspaper. He picked it up, turned it round and found the first page of the showbiz news. Right there, in a huge picture, he saw himself standing next to a crying Mina-chan. A huge headline read:

MINA-CHAN'S IN TEARS!

Under that, in a smaller typeset, Takumi read:

'Fujiwara Takumi, driver of the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team, makes the pop star cry.'

He didn't even need to read the rest of the article to figure out what it said.

'Shit!' he whispered dropping the paper.

'You've seen it then?' he heard his father ask coming through the door that connected with his shop.

Takumi nodded and then, remembering that his friend was still waiting for him, walked back to the phone and picking it up, he said:

'I can explain…'

'What did you do to her?' Itsuki asked still sounding very hurt.

Takumi spent the next ten minutes explaining everything that had gone on during the previous three weeks.

Itsuki, for the first time in his life, was rendered completely speechless.

'Itsuki, I've got another call now, I'll call you later, ok?' Takumi said hearing the characteristic beep on his phone.

'S-sure,' Itsuki stuttered, probably not having the strength to argue with Takumi.

As his friend hung up, Takumi took the other call.

'Fujiwara Tofu Shop,' he said.

'This is Ryosuke. I need you to come to my place as soon as you can.'

Takumi wondered in silence whether to ask his Team Manager if there was any specific reason to summon him when his now fully awake brain came up with the answer on its own.

'It's about the newspaper article, isn't it?'

'Yes,' Ryosuke replied.

'Alright, I'll be there in less than an hour,' Takumi said thankful that his voice still sounded quite steady.

He climbed the stairs, threw some clothes on him and went back downstairs not even bothering to comb his messy hair.

'Dad…'

'Son, this is one of the reasons why I hated racing in an official team,' Bunta said as his son crossed the shop on his way to the exit.

'How did they…'

'Takumi, they're journalists. It's their job to fish for news,' Bunta said. Takumi shook his head briefly and left his house.

He climbed into his 86 and made his way to Maebashi as fast as he could without breaking any traffic rule.

Not that he was in a rush to get to his Team Manager's house for Takumi was absolutely terrified of what Ryosuke-san would say about this.

When he did get to the house, he didn't even need to ring the bell because the door was already open: Ryosuke was there already waiting for him and, for the first time in his life, Takumi really wanted to run away as fast as he could.

'Come on in,' he said and Takumi forced himself to walk forward.

'I'm sorry I…'

'Let's talk about this calmly,' Ryosuke said and Takumi realised that Ryosuke wasn't angry or upset. If anything, his Team Manager sounded very concerned.

As he entered the Takahashi's large living room, Takumi saw Keisuke and Kyoko sitting there on one of the sofas. Ryosuke's wife wasn't there.

'Please take a seat,' Ryosuke said.

Takumi sat down on the free sofa as Ryosuke took a chair and sat in front of him.

'Now,' he started, 'I'm not interested about the details, that's your business and no one else's, however and since they printed our team's name in the paper, I expect to get some sort of reaction from our sponsors. I'm not talking only about Kirin, but also the companies who supply us with the tyres and the rest of the parts. I'm not sure they'll be happy to have their names associated with this kind of gossip…'

'I'm sorry,' Takumi said unable to say anything else.

'Okay, we need to come up with our version of…'

Ryosuke's phone in his pocket rang, interrupting him at mid-sentence.

'Ryosuke here,' he said.

'Really?' he added after having listened for a short while, 'I'll put it on now,' he said. He then got up and turned the TV on selecting the NHK1 channel.

All four of them watched as some journalist said something about an unexpected press conference then the camera switched to focus on a long table in what seemed some hotel's hall. Then they saw sitting there, with two big guys standing behind her, the pop star Mina-chan.

The journalists present at the press conference went quiet as she began to speak:

'Good morning and thanks for coming. I have received news of some article that's been published showing a picture of me and a driver from the Super GT300 Championship. In said picture, I appeared to be crying and, as usual, some of your less kind colleagues assumed that my tears were due to something the driver had done,' she then took a short breath.

Takumi's eyes were wide with shock and he realised that he wasn't blinking nor breathing while he listened to the pop star.

'I have called this press conference to explain that Takumi Fujiwara, from the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had nothing to do with the whole episode. We happen to be acquaintances and he was just listening to my ramblings…'

Then a journalist got up and said:

'Mina-chan, the article's sources say that you were asking him if he…'

Mina-chan interrupted the journalist and said:

'It's true that when I found out that he was single, I made the silly mistake of thinking that he might have been interested in going out with me. Fujiwara-san was very sorry to inform me that his time is entirely devoted to his team. I should add that the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team is very lucky to have such a professional person driving for them. That's all I have to say. Thank you.'

With this, she got up, bowed to the journalists and, without allowing any further questions, she left the hall.

_To be continued…_


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Three_

Ryosuke only reacted when he heard his phone ringing while he was still holding it in his hand.

'Fumihiro?' he said thinking his right hand man was calling him back.

'No, this is Shimazu. Am I speaking to Tahakashi Ryosuke?'

'Shimazu-san, I was about to call you,' Ryosuke said sitting back down on the chair.

'Yes, you probably wanted to talk to me about that sudden free publicity your team has just given us,' Shimazu-san said and Ryosuke was surprised to find that the Kirin Marketing manager sounded extremely happy.

'Shimazu-san…'

'Takahashi-san, don't worry about the gossip. Publicity is always publicity. First you win your maiden race with our colours, now you give us almost five minutes of a free spot on national TV with one of the most famous pop stars saying our name twice. Takahashi-san, Kirin's board of directors is considering very seriously incrementing the sponsorship by another five percent. I will call you as soon as we reach a decision.'

'I'll be looking forward to hearing from you then,' Ryosuke said.

As he pressed the button to finish the conversation, Ryosuke looked around his living room to find Keisuke and Takumi engaged in a staring competition.

'Guys…' Ryosuke said and that seemed to make both of his drivers snap out of it.

'I can't believe you rejected her twice,' Keisuke said looking at Takumi with a mix of admiration and disbelief and, seeing that Takumi didn't say anything, he added: 'she's done you a huge favour, I think that the least you can do is thank her…'

'I don't have to do anything,' Takumi finally said getting up from the sofa, 'she did everything on her own!'

'What? That's bollocks!' Keisuke said getting up from his sofa too.

'Stop it!' Ryosuke said raising his voice only a notch but enough so his brother and Takumi would stop arguing.

'But Aniki…'

'This has turned out a lot better than I hoped: Kirin's even thinking of giving us more money. Keisuke, if Takumi wants to thank this whatever-her-name-is, that's his decision, only his. Understood?'

Keisuke looked at him for a bit then, surrendering, he said:

'Alright. I just think he's making a mistake.'

'If he is, it's going to be HIS mistake, not yours,' Ryosuke said and Keisuke, who after all knew him better than anyone else, understood the hidden message in that sentence.

'Alright,' he repeated sitting back down on the sofa next to Kyoko who had chosen to stay out of this conversation.

'Can I go home?' Takumi asked Ryosuke.

'Sure, sorry for making you come all the way here for nothing,' Ryosuke said, 'I'll see you the day after tomorrow for the meeting.'

'Sure,' Takumi said and, after nodding towards Keisuke and Kyoko, he left the room and the house.

'I'm going upstairs to get changed so I can go to the hospital,' Ryosuke announced and Keisuke could tell that his brother was a bit happier than usual.

'I'm amazed,' Kyoko commented.

'What about?' Keisuke asked.

'Takumi,' she replied, 'for such a quiet guy, he's incredibly stubborn.'

'You've got no idea,' Keisuke said, 'I just hope he got Aniki's message…'

'Which message?'

'Essentially, Aniki implied that it he made this mistake he'd have to live with it the rest of his life,' Keisuke explained.

'Keisuke, you're going to let it be, aren't you?' Kyoko asked looking at her boyfriend straight in the eye.

'Maybe,' Keisuke said cryptically.

'Keisuke…' Kyoko warned.

'So what if, say that they meet up by, let's say coincidentally and, you know, they get talking…'

'Coincidentally?' Kyoko asked lifting her eyebrows and giving him a knowing look, 'you're planning something, aren't you?'

'Oh, look, the news…' Keisuke said turning his eyes towards the TV. Kyoko promptly took the remote and turned it off.

'Nice try, but not good enough. What are you going to do?'

'Me? Nothing,' Keisuke said looking all too angelic to fool Kyoko, 'alright, just a little something.'

'What?' Kyoko insisted.

'Er, well, the thing is, one of the two guys Mina-chan behind her. I think I've seen him before. I need to check with one of my old friends from my biker days.'

'What? If your brother finds out…'

'He won't if you don't tell him,' Keisuke said.

'Brilliant, now I'm your accomplice,' Kyoko complained but, deep down, Keisuke knew that she was only too happy to help.

'Alright, let me make some phone calls. I'll figure out a way for Takumi to meet with Mina-chan.'

'Keisuke, why are you doing all of this?' Kyoko asked all the sudden.

'Let's call it revenge,' Keisuke said.

'Revenge?' Kyoko asked sounding confused.

'Yeah, of the sweetest kind: before you and I got together, he had the nerve to tell me that I didn't act on my emotions and now he's doing the very thing he accused me of. Kyoko, this girl clearly has feelings for him and, I simply refuse to believe Takumi doesn't feel anything for her…'

'He told you to act on your feelings for me?' Kyoko asked, apparently ignoring the rest of what he had said.

'Yeah.'

'So it's partially because of him that we're together,' Kyoko said.

'Yeah,' Keisuke confirmed.

Kyoko looked at Keisuke and he saw her beautiful eyes filling with the fiery determination that made him love her so much.

'Alright, I'm in then. I've got to return him the favour.'

'Good girl,' Keisuke said smiling happily.

Two days later, and following Keisuke's indications, Kyoko found herself heading towards Tokyo in her FD wearing the team's jacket.

She hoped that neither Takumi nor Ryosuke would find suspicious that she was missing from the team's meeting, especially because this was her first post-race briefing and she was supposed to be there so she could redact the press release.

Instead, she was driving through the complete chaos that was the traffic of the capital city of Japan. She could definitely not live there. Even the rotary engine of her FD seemed to complain because of the continuous brake-accelerate-brake pattern she was putting it through.

Finally, and just as she was about to give up, she found the place she had been looking for. Now she only had to hope that Keisuke's friend had warned the security guys so she would be let in.

'Hello, I'm Iwase Kyoko,' she said to the one who was standing outside the photo studio's door.

'And?' the guy said and Kyoko began to get worried and even scared seeing that the guy was twice her size.

'I'm coming here on behalf of Takahashi Keisuke,' she said and she noticed, with pleasure, that the mere mention of Keisuke's name made the guy change his attitude one hundred and eighty degrees.

'How's Keisuke-san these days?' the guy asked.

'He's alright. I'm his girlfriend by the way,' Kyoko said following Keisuke's instructions. She hadn't known at first why she had to say that but, seeing the guy's reaction to this bit of information made her understand the reason.

'Iwase-sama, come this way please,' the security guy said, and seeing him become almost as polite as a butler made Kyoko repress a giggle.

She followed the guy and entered the studio where, according to Keisuke's sources, Mina-chan was doing a photo shoot for her next album.

Kyoko, having passed the first stage of her mission successfully, allowed herself to look around. The studio was very luxurious (again it was in the middle of Shibuya so it was to be expected). The thing that surprised Kyoko the most was Mina-chan herself.

She posed in front of the camera with the grace of a professional model. And she was even better looking than what Kyoko remembered from the pictures she had seen of her, Keisuke was right: if Takumi didn't feel anything for this girl, he had some serious problems.

Kyoko waited patiently till the photographer allowed Mina-chan to take a break. Only then Kyoko made her move.

'Hello, my name is Iwase Kyoko, I'm with the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team.'

'That's obvious,' Mina-chan said almost sarcastically interrupting her and pointing at Kyoko's jacket, 'how did you get in here?'

Kyoko considered lying but again, following what Keisuke had told her, she said the truth:

'My boyfriend knows one of the members of your security staff,' Kyoko said.

'What do you want?' a voice coming from behind Kyoko asked and the girl turned round to face that same guy who had come to pick Takumi up from the boxes after the qualifying session.

'I'm…' she stared but a motion from Mina-chan's hand made stop talking.

'Don't worry, we're just talking, please go and tell the photographer that I'm going to take the rest of the day off.'

'What? Mina-chan…' the manager said.

'Please,' Mina-chan said pouting in a very childish way that made her look even cuter.

'Alright,' he finally conceded and left the two girls alone.

'What are you doing here? Is Takumi-kun alright?' Mina-chan asked and Kyoko couldn't help but to notice the not so subtle change in her tone of voice: she sounded very worried.

'Yes, he is. And I'm here precisely for him. You've done something incredibly nice for Takumi and for our team. So, we thought you may want to consider having dinner with Takumi,' Kyoko said.

'Did he say he wanted to have dinner with me?' Mina-chan said with the utmost disbelief imprinted on her voice.

'Not exactly,' Kyoko admitted.

'He has no idea you're here, has he?' she said, now sounding quite bitter.

Kyoko damned her for being so smart, weren't pretty girls such as this one supposed to be dumb?

'Mina-chan, Takumi's just had his heart broken, again. His previous girlfriends haven't been very considered with him and, whereas I understand his reluctance to put his emotions on the line anytime soon, I don't think he should lock his heart up to prevent himself from feeling anything. Even if he's trying his best to deny it, I think he finds you very attractive and, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe you feel something for Takumi too.'

Mina-chan looked at Kyoko for a second before saying:

'I do. I like him a lot. You'll think I'm strange because I hardly know him but, in my profession, you need to figure people out very quickly and I could tell that, aside being very cute, he was a nice person from the moment I met him. And he's a good kisser too.'

'You guys have kissed?' Kyoko asked shocked.

'Yeah, I've kissed him a couple of times,' Mina-chan said like if it was the most normal thing on earth, 'so, what do I have to do to see him?'

'You just need to come with me,' Kyoko said not being able to believe that things had gone so well. She only hoped that Keisuke would also succeed in his part of the mission.

Back at the team's base, as everyone prepared themselves to go home, Keisuke approached Takumi who was looking gloomier than ever.

'Hey, I have the perfect thing to cheer you up,' Keisuke said.

'What is it?' Takumi said with an obviously fake enthusiasm.

'I found this new mountain pass and I'd like you to come with me to try it.'

'Look, I'm not in the mood for…'

'You're coming, even if I have to drag you there myself,' Keisuke said deciding that he would be true to his word if Takumi insisted on being stubborn.

'Where is it?' Takumi asked apparently surrendering to his team mate.

'Near Tokyo,' Keisuke said and, before Takumi could change his mind, he made him get into his 86 and follow him as Keisuke climbed into his FD.

On their way there, Keisuke called Kyoko to make sure his girlfriend was waiting at the place where he had booked a table for two. He was happy to see that Kyoko had had no problems and that she was already there with Mina-chan.

Takumi followed Keisuke's car and found it really odd when, instead of taking the exit for the mountainous area north of Tokyo, he just drove inside a restaurant's car park.

'What are we doing here?' he asked when Keisuke walked to his car.

Keisuke opened the AE86's driver-side door and said:

'Takumi, your date is waiting for you inside,'

'My…WHAT?' Takumi exclaimed.

'Mina-chan is inside the restaurant, waiting for you at a table I have booked for you two.'

'What?' Takumi repeated crossly.

'You find her attractive, don't you?' Keisuke asked, refusing to be intimidated by Takumi's anger.

'Yeah, of course, but what does this have to do with anything?' Takumi asked still upset with his team mate.

'Then give her and yourself a chance. If after tonight you really don't want to see her again, then I'll let you be,' Keisuke said.

'Why are you so insistent?' Takumi asked.

'Because you'll regret it if you don't act on your emotions and you know it,' Keisuke said cheekily.

Takumi's angry face gradually gave way to his normal one and, after a few instants, he said:

'Fine, you win.'

'Fujiwara, I thought I'd never hear you say those words,' Keisuke said smiling devilishly.

_To be continued…_


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Four_

Takumi followed Keisuke inside one of the restaurant's private dinning rooms to find Kyoko there waiting with a very nervous looking Mina-chan.

'Alright, so, here he is, now we're going to go,' Kyoko said.

'Yes, have fun and don't worry about the paparazzi. This restaurant is a friend of mine's and you will be ensured enough privacy,' Keisuke said, talking to Mina-chan.

Then the couple left the singer alone with Takumi.

'Hi,' Takumi said suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

The singer wasn't even able to speak. She just stood there biting her lower lip.

'Shall we sit down?' Takumi said pointing at the table.

'O-okay,' she stammered.

As they were taking their seats, a middle-aged lady came in with the menus and a couple of glasses of iced water. That made Takumi realise two important things: he didn't even know the kind of restaurant this was and, even worse, he didn't think he'd brought enough money to pay for the meal.

'Good evening, you may order whatever you wish, it'll be on the house,' the lady said.

'Pardon?' Takumi said.

'Takahashi-san never pays in our restaurant and I've been told you're his very good friends so you are to be afforded the same treatment,' the lady explained.

'Ah, thanks,' Takumi said and the lady bowed briefly before leaving them alone.

'You have very good friends,' Mina-chan commented with a very tiny voice and that made Takumi look at her. She was every bit as beautiful as he remembered. She wasn't wearing any make up and her pretty white dress made her look even more adorable.

'Before I forget, thanks for coming,' she added seeing that he wasn't going to say anything to her previous statement.

'Ah, no problem,' he said feeling, if possible, even more uncomfortable.

'To be honest, I didn't think you'd show up,' she said.

'Why not?' Takumi asked frowning. Was this girl for real? Takumi thought while Mina-chan went back to torturing her lower lip.

'Can I ask you something?' Takumi said and Mina-chan just nodded, 'why are you interested in me?'

Mina-chan looked at him for a while before replying:

'I'm not entirely sure. I…' she said and, as she did, she tried to move the menu out of the way, hitting her glass of water in the process which tripped over the table spilling its contents all over the place, including Takumi's t-shirt.

'Oh! I'm sorry!' Mina-chan said getting up, walking around the table and starting to dry up Takumi's t-shirt with her napkin, 'I'm so clumsy,' she said.

Takumi, feeling embarrassed enough as it was, took Mina-chan's hands in his and, noticing how much they were trembling, he said using what he hoped was a soothing tone of voice:

'Hey, Mina-chan, don't worry. It's just water, it'll dry out.'

Then she did something even stranger. She dropped on her knees and put her hands on her face. Takumi begged to every god that might have been listening so she wouldn't start crying.

'Hey, I said it's alright,' he said getting scared.

'It's not. This is so not alright! You didn't even want to be here,' she complained, her voice muffled because of her hands.

Takumi got up from his chair and crouching next to her, he said:

'Mina-chan, there is no one who can force me to do something I don't want to do. If I'm here it's because I want to be here.'

Mina-chan, slowly, removed her hands from her face and Takumi saw that she was indeed on the verge of crying.

'Really?' she asked a bit too sceptically.

'One hundred percent sure,' Takumi said.

'I knew that you'd be like this,' she then said finally getting up from the floor, allowing Takumi to stand up too.

'Like what?' he asked.

'So strong,' she said and Takumi wanted to laugh out loud. Him? Strong? Whatever next…

'I'm the weakest person alive, Mina-chan,' he said with a half a smile. Mina-chan shook her pretty head and said:

'I think you're a lot stronger than even yourself know.'

Her words shocked him. They were so similar to what Ryosuke had told him, ages ago, that was almost scary.

'I don't get it. You don't even know me,' Takumi complained.

'I know. But I think I'm good at figuring out people rather quickly and I could tell I liked you from the first time we spoke,' she said.

The lady's entrance saved Takumi from having to comment on that. Seeing the mess on the table, she took a cloth from a pocket and started wiping the table with it.

'Are you ready to order?' the lady said while she finished drying the water out.

'Er…why don't you bring us whatever the chef recommends?' Takumi said.

'Alright,' the lady said with a smile, 'I'll get you another glass of water,' she said to Mina-chan.

'Thank you,' Mina-chan said looking positively mortified.

After the lady had left, the two sat back on their chairs.

'Can I ask you something else?' Takumi said.

'Sure,' Mina-chan replied.

'How is it that a beautiful, popular and successful girl such as yourself is so insecure?'

Mina-chan looked from him to her lap and, after a while, she looked back up at him and said:

'I'm only this insecure with the guys I like. Give me a mike and a stage and, I don't know, something happens that makes me feel like the most confident person in the world.'

Takumi could very well relate to that for it was exactly what happened to him whenever he got onboard a racing car.

'But with your looks, I'm sure you must not have any problems getting the guy you like to date you.'

'Like with you, you mean?' Mina-chan said raising her eyebrows a bit.

'Alright, I get it,' Takumi said.

'I don't think so,' she said startling him with her frankness, 'you're right: there are loads of guys who fancy me and I'm not talking about my fans here, I'm talking about guys from the showbiz who meet me and ask me out. Unfortunately for me, they all want to date me for my looks or even worse, since I'm already famous, dating me will make them famous too.'

'What?' Takumi said finding it very difficult to understand.

'You know what the problem is?' Mina-chan said and Takumi shook his head, 'for normal people it's hard enough to find someone they like for real and to have those feelings reciprocated. Imagine how difficult it is for me when, in addition to this, I also need to find someone who'll be able to accept the pressure of the gossip.'

Takumi didn't know what to say but, once more, the lady's entrance saved him.

She brought two plates full of pasta. One with a green sauce and another one with a meaty one making Takumi realise, for the first time, that they were in an Italian restaurant.

'This is spaghetti al pesto and this is penne with Bolognese sauce,' the lady explained leaving the two plates so they could choose which one to eat.

'I'll try this one,' Mina-chan said pointing at the green sauced one.

'Alright,' Takumi said taking the other one.

The lady left them alone again and Takumi was left looking at his dish not really knowing what to do with it.

'Never had Italian food?' Mina-chan asked with a small smile.

'Not really, my father doesn't like it,' Takumi explained.

'Ah, I see. You eat it like this,' she said taking his fork, piercing one of the pasta shapes, mixing it well with the sauce and putting it close to Takumi's mouth.

Before he could realise what he was doing, he took the food from the fork and started chewing it.

'Nice,' he commented once he had swallowed, 'I think I've got the hang of it now,' he said taking his fork from her hand grazing her soft skin briefly. This small contact provoked some sort of electric shock that made them drop the piece of cutlery on the table.

'I'm sorry,' she said.

'Don't worry,' Takumi said feeling himself get warm on his cheeks. He picked up his fork and started eating while she did the same.

They ate in silence for a few minutes before she said:

'How did you get involved in racing?'

That simple question managed to get them engaged in a conversation that, as it went on, became more and more fluid and soon, Takumi found himself able to relax and enjoy Mina-chan's company who, in turn, seemed to be having a really good time.

They finished their desserts, two delicious portions of tiramisu, when Takumi offered himself to drive her back home.

'Oh no, don't worry about it,' she said.

'How are you going to get home?' Takumi asked.

'I'll call my manager so he sends me a car,' she said.

'Don't be silly, we're not that far from Tokyo and I fancy a long drive anyway,' Takumi said.

'Are you sure?'

'Definitely,' he said and, as to prove his point, he took his 86's key out of his pocket.

Thanking the lady for the service and for the lovely meal, Takumi and Mina-chan walked towards the young man's car.

'That's your car?' she said looking at the 86.

'Yes, any problems?' he said a bit too defensively.

'No, I like it…' she said and Takumi feared she too was going to say that his car looked cute when, instead, she said, 'it looks very fast.'

That took Takumi completely by surprise.

'It is,' he simply said opening the passenger's door so she could climb in the car.

He started the car and she gasped quite audibly hearing the roar of the AE86's racing engine: that made him feel even prouder of his car.

He drove them out of the car park and was heading towards the motorway that led to Tokyo's urban area when he said:

'So, what should we do in our next date?'

'Next date?' she asked looking slightly taken aback.

'Yeah, I've liked being with you as much as I thought I would,' he said deciding to be honest to both himself and her.

'But, Takumi, didn't you hear what I said earlier?' she asked.

'About what?' he replied.

'About how difficult it is for me to date anyone,' she reminded him miserably.

'We don't have to go to anywhere public. We could just go for a drive somewhere or, I don't know...'

'Look, I appreciate that you want to go out with me again but, I can't do this to you,' she said.

'Why not?' he asked.

'Because you're a really nice guy and I can't put you through what it means to be with me,' she explained.

'Shouldn't I be the one making that decision?' he said stubbornly.

'Takumi…'

'Look, the reason why I didn't want to go out with you is because I knew that if I went out with you once I would end up liking you. Now, I like you and I want to go out with you,' Takumi said firmly.

'Are you sure?' she asked.

'Absolutely,' he said.

Mina-chan remained silent for a while before sighing loudly enough for him to hear it over the engine's sound.

'Alright,' she finally said, 'you mentioned something like going for a drive, didn't you?'

'Yeah, I did,' Takumi said.

'The think is, I don't have a driver's license yet so, what do you think if you teach me to drive…'

'What?' Takumi said, removing his gaze from the road to look at her. He saw that she was completely serious about it and, thinking rapidly, he came up with an idea:

'Since you said we can't go anywhere public, what would you say if I ask permission to Ryosuke-san to use the track where we train?'

'I'd love that,' she said smiling enthusiastically.

'Okay, I'm not sure if I'm going to be any good though,' he said.

'What? Takumi, you're a professional racer!' she laughed.

'Yeah, I mean, I know I'm good at driving but I'm not sure if I'll be good at teaching,' he explained.

'Well, since I have absolutely no idea how to drive, I don't think I'm going to be able to tell the difference, am I?' she said still smiling.

'Good point,' Takumi admitted.

She started laughing again and, just as it had happened with Ryouske-san, Takumi had the impression that if he stuck with this girl everything would be alright.

_To be continued…_


	26. Chapter Twenty Five

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Five_

Takumi had just hanged up the phone, finishing the second call of the day when the thing rang again.

'Hello?' he said picking it back up.

'Hey Takumi, it's me, Itsuki…'

'What's up?' Takumi said.

'Nothing really, that's why I'm calling you. Are you doing anything this afternoon?' he asked and Takumi realised his friend sounded a tad on the desperate side. Probably poor Itsuki was bored off his mind: Takumi knew that Kenji was out of town visiting some relatives and Iketani was in full love-mode with Mako-chan so probably Itsuki didn't have anyone to hang out with. So, after a few instants of consideration Takumi said:

'We could go and get some coffee or…'

'What about a drive? I haven't gone to Mt Akina with you in ages,' Itsuki suggested instead.

'Alright, I'll go by your house after lunch, ok?' Takumi said.

'Sure,' Itsuki said sounding very happy.

True to his word and after he had finished doing the washing up, he told his father that he was going out. Bunta, who was busy making the tofu, didn't even bother to look up at his son, instead, he just said:

'Remember you've got to do the deliveries tonight…'

'I know, I know…' Takumi said before heading out towards his car.

By the time he arrived to Itsuki's house Takumi saw his friend standing by his turbo equipped AE85.

'Hi!' Itsuki greeted him enthusiastically making Takumi feel slightly guilty for he knew he'd been neglecting his friend quite a lot in these past few months.

They got going to Mt Akina and, after driving around for a while and with Takumi noticing that his friend had improved his driving skills even more, the two stopped by the vending machines near the lake to get a couple of cans of coffee.

'This feels almost as it did in the old days, when we used to hang around here all the time,' Itsuki commented with his gaze lost somewhere beyond the silvery surface of the lake.

'I know, things have changed quite a lot, haven't they?' Takumi said.

'Yeah…' Itsuki said, his voice loaded with melancholy.

'I'm sorry we haven't done this in such a long time,' Takumi said.

'Don't worry, I know you're busy with the racing team. You don't even have time to work anymore, do you?'

Takumi shook his head. It was true that he no longer had a proper job but again, with Kirin's sponsorship, Ryosuke-san was able to pay to both of his drivers a decent enough salary so neither would have to focus their energies in anything but driving. Objectively speaking, Takumi no longer needed a job so he had decided to quit it and, these days, he only helped his father with the deliveries very sporadically.

In fact, Takumi had the distinct impression that his father only asked him to do the deliveries when he saw him nervous or restless. Bunta Fujiwara knew his son very well and he knew that doing something as familiar as driving around Mt Akina late at night made his son feel much better.

'Are you free tonight?' Itsuki asked suddenly, taking Takumi out of his reverie.

'Nope, sorry,' the young man replied beginning to panic because he really didn't want to explain to anyone except the Takahashi brothers about his date with Mina-chan.

'Have you got a date?' Itsuki asked startling Takumi.

'Er…'

'It's okay if you did. Mika left you, remember? You've got every right to see other people…' Itsuki said.

'You think so?' Takumi said and Itsuki nodded twice.

'So, who is it this time? Do I know her?' Itsuki asked, obviously refusing to drop the subject.

'Er…yeah, you kind of know her,' Takumi finally admitted.

'Who is she?' Itsuki insisted.

Takumi took a sip from his coffee in a desperate attempt at trying to buy himself sometime during which he considered his options. He could lie or tell Itsuki to mind his own business or he could tell his friend the truth and hope Itsuki would keep the secret.

Remembering how hurt Itsuki had been when he'd found out about his break up with Mika through other sources, Takumi decided to be honest with him, and hope for the best.

'Alright, I'm going to tell you but you've got to promise me that you'll keep it to yourself and that you won't freak out.'

'Argh! Stop being so secretive!' Itsuki exclaimed.

'I'm serious,' Takumi said gravely for it was imperative Itsuki understood how delicate the situation was.

'Alright, I promise I won't tell anyone.'

'Stay calm, alright?' Takumi insisted fearing the potentially explosive reaction his friend would have when he found out.

'OKAY! Tell me already!' his friend said, sounding anything but calm making Takumi take a deep breath before saying, with as much nonchalance as he could muster:

'I've started seeing Mina-chan.'

Itsuki remained quiet, too quiet and by the time Takumi decided to look at his friend he understood why: Itsuki had chocked himself with some of his coffee and his face was now turning a very unhealthy looking shade of red.

'Itsuki?' he asked and, just in case, started patting his friend's back till he finally started coughing very violently.

'You're alright?' Takumi asked as Itsuk's face gradually returned to its normal colouring.

'Alright?' Itsuki wheezed using the first gulp of air that had got into his lungs, 'you're not kidding me, are you?' he asked Takumi frowning.

Takumi shook his head.

'Oh my god…' Itsuki said and, after a few moments, he added, 'how did it happen?'

Takumi spent the next few minutes explaining it to Itsuki.

'So, you're going to pick her up and take her to the circuit to teach her how to drive?' Itsuki asked as Takumi finished the story.

'Yeah.'

'Wow, I'm so jealous…'

'Why?' Takumi asked.

'WHY? Are you nuts? First you date the prettiest girl in the school. Then you get Mika who was extremely cute too. Takumi, with Mina-chan you're moving into a whole new level.'

'Why?' Takumi repeated and Itsuki made an exasperated noise.

'You're dating one of the most famous singers in the country! She's like an impossible dream for most of us.'

'She's a normal girl, you know,' Takumi said.

'NO! She's not!' Itsuki shouted, 'Takumi, she's gorgeous, she's rich, she's very famous and for normal people like me, there is no way on earth she'd ever pay any attention to us. Goodness knows why she likes you…but, again, you've never been normal.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Takumi said getting annoyed.

'Takumi, you've always been different. There is something about you that's always made you stand out. Maybe it's the fact that you've been born with an innate talent for racing…I don't know…' Itsuki explained.

Takumi didn't know that to say to that. He had had the very same dilemma about the reason why Mina-chan felt attracted to him and, not having found any convincing one, he'd decided that it was probably better not to think about it too much. He'd just enjoy her company for as long as it lasted without expecting too much from this newborn relationship.

After driving back to town, Takumi went to the petrol station where he had worked with Itsuki and, after his friend had filled the 86 with high octane, he drove off towards the motorway that led to Tokyo.

He had arranged with Mina-chan for him to drive into her house, a magnificent looking villa in a very posh area of Tokyo. She'd wait for him so she could board the car and leave her property without being seen by anyone.

Takumi was pleased to see that her two accessories, the bodyguards, weren't with her that evening.

'Did you have any problems finding the place?' Mina-chan asked the minute she got into the 86 and as she fastened her seatbelt.

'No, your map was very good,' Takumi said, 'you've got a very nice house,' he then commented.

'Yes. You know that after my father died, Mum had to work very hard in order to raise me. Well, she couldn't afford to buy a house so we rented this small apartment and I've always known that she hated not having a garden and not having enough room for the two of us so, when I became famous and using the money from the first album's sales, I bought her this house where she can live as comfortably as she deserves.'

'That's nice of you,' Takumi commented.

'Yeah, it's the least I can do for her,' she replied then, as usual trying her best to avoid painful topics of conversation, she asked, 'I take your boss has agreed for us to use the circuit?'

'Yeah,' Takumi replied.

'Good, I'm looking forward to your lessons, Takumi-sensei,' she said teasingly making Takumi blush slightly. Did she have any idea how sexy her voice sounded in the darkness of his car?

At long last, they arrived at the circuit saving Takumi from his own imagination. He opened the main gate and drove the Toyota all the way to the finish line of the small track. There, the two of them swapped places in the car.

'Wow, this feels weird,' Mina-chan said sitting for the first time on the AE86's bucket seat.

'I know, it takes some time to get used to it,' Takumi explained, 'right, so, let's start…' he added and took a short pause to look at her.

'We've got the pedals here,' he said pointing at her feet.

'I already know about those,' Mina-chan said interrupting him.

'Ah, alright, so, why don't you start the car?'

'Ah…'

'With that,' Takumi said pointing at the ignition key.

'Right,' Mina-chan said with a nervous giggle.

She then proceeded to turn the engine on being, once more, impressed by the roaring sound it made.

'Alright, now, press the clutch, that's the pedal on your left,' Takumi said.

'Got it,' she said as she visibly stepped on it.

'Insert the first gear,' he then said and, seeing that Mina-chan was looking at the gear stick doubtfully, he decided to take her hand from the steering wheel to place it on top of the gear stick's knob. Before he could lose his concentration because of her soft skin, he pushed it forward and engaged the first gear.

'Now, take the handbrake off,' Takumi said pointing at it and, after she had done so, he added, 'now, gradually, press the accelerator a very tiny bit as you release the clutch.'

She did it and, predictably enough, the engine stalled.

'What's wrong?' she asked worriedly.

'It's okay, don't worry. You let go of the clutch too soon,' Takumi said and then he added, 'let's try again.'

It took poor Mina-chan about ten times of trying to engage the first gear before she got the car to move a few metres. Then, probably overcome by the emotion, she made the engine stop again.

'Oh no!' she said sounding very upset, 'I was doing so well!'

'Hey, you moved the car several meters, look,' Takumi said encouragingly as he pointed at the back of his car.

'Oh wow! You're right! Oh my gosh, I've just driven a car!' she said almost bouncing on her seat making Takumi's lips curve into a small smile.

'Let's try again, okay?' Takumi said repressing a chuckle.

'Sure,' she said sounding very enthusiastic.

After a few more tries, Takumi was happy to see that Mina-chan was getting the hang of it and, by the end of the hour, albeit going at turtle-speed and making the car's engine stop twice, she had even managed to drive around the circuit once. Takumi was confident that, with enough practice, she'd probably be a good driver.

'I don't think so, I stopped the poor thing a million times,' she said when he'd told her so and as she got out of the car.

'I'm serious,' he said joining her by the driver's side of the car, 'this AE86 is a very difficult car to drive. When you'll drive a normal one you'll see the difference.'

'Really?' she said looking at him with her pretty head tilted to one side and as she bit her lower lip.

'Trust me, you're good,' he said patting her shoulder.

'You know, I think I deserve a kiss then,' she said and Takumi could tell she was, yet again, having fun making him blush.

This time though, Takumi was prepared and, instead of feeling all flustered, he put his other hand on her other shoulder and, pulling her towards him, he bent down to kiss her.

'Oh no,' Mina-chan said when they separated startling Takumi in the process: he had definitely not expected that kind of reaction to his kiss.

'What's wrong?' he asked a bit apprehensively.

'A photographer…' she said looking at some point at Takumi's back. As he turned round, he saw a guy with a camera hanging off his neck who, knowing he'd been discovered, was already running away from them.

'Crap,' Takumi said as he prepared himself to chase the photographer.

_To be continued…_


	27. Chapter Twenty Six

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Six_

As he started running, he felt a hand grabbing his sleeve and that made him stop. Turning round, he saw Mina-chan shaking her head looking very serious.

'It's useless. He probably has someone waiting for him somewhere with a car and, by now, they'll be nowhere near here…' she explained.

'What are we going to do then? Nothing?' Takumi asked considering very seriously jumping into the AE86 to go after them.

'There isn't much we can do. I'll ask my manager to see if he can try and contain the damage.'

Takumi didn't know what to say. He was just very angry at the photographer and a bit afraid of what would happen if their picture got published: to say that Ryosuke-san would get upset was an understatement.

In any case, the incident had completely ruined the evening so Takumi drove Mina-chan back home and then he headed towards his so he could get some sleep before going to do the deliveries: on a Saturday morning the road would be even emptier than usual and Takumi liked that a lot.

As he crossed the living room on his way to the stairs, he heard his father say:

'Hey, are you alright?'

Takumi considered ignoring his father for it was way too embarrassing telling him about what had just happened. However, thinking that it was more likely than not that the picture would end up published, he realised that his father would find out about it anyway.

For this reason, he turned round and, making it as short as he could, he explained the whole situation to his father.

'I think you should call Ryosuke so you can warn him,' Bunta said being unusually clear giving his piece of advice.

Takumi freaked out at the very thought of explaining this to Ryosuke-san too. If it had been embarrassing telling his dad, doing so with his boss would just be downright humiliating.

'He's a smart enough guy, he'll figure out what to do,' Bunta insisted seeing his son debating the issue within himself.

'Alright,' Takumi mumbled on his way to the phone.

For the second time that evening, Takumi explained the episode to Ryosuke and as he was doing so, Takumi felt his face get so warm he thought he was running a fever.

'Don't worry, I'll take care of this,' Ryosuke said clearly not impressed by the whole thing.

'I'm very sorry, I…'

'It's not your fault Takumi. I'd like to ask you one thing though, if you don't mind,' Ryosuke said.

'Sure,' Takumi replied determined to answer anything his boss may have asked of him.

'You really like this girl, don't you?'

Okay, not everything. This was way too private…

'Because if you do, then I'll do everything in my power to help you two out,' Ryosuke added when Takumi didn't answer to his question.

'I do,' Takumi finally admitted.

'Alright then, don't worry about it. Just leave it to me, okay?' Ryosuke said in his most reassuring tone of voice.

'Sure, goodnight Ryosuke-san,' Takumi said feeling grateful that the weight was off his shoulders but mortified at the same time for he always seemed to rely on his boss to get him out of trouble.

'Goodnight, Takumi, I'll see you and your father on Monday,' Ryosuke said and then he hung up.

'You were right,' Takumi said to his father before he turned round to climb the stairs on his way to his room.

'I always am,' Bunta said to no one in particular.

Monday's training session started without a glitch. Takumi noticed how Ryosuke didn't even bring up their Friday night's conversation so he too, decided not to mention it to anyone.

'Hey Takumi, I heard what happened,' Keisuke said to him as they were taking a break while the mechanics worked on their car.

'Yeah, I…'

'Don't worry, if Akiko has her way the picture won't be published by any newspapers…'

'Akiko-san?' Takumi asked surprised to find out that Ryosuke's wife had been involved in the whole thing.

'Yeah, she and her father know some very important people in the media environment. When Aniki explained to her what happened, she said she'd make some phone calls.'

Takumi put his elbows on his knees and hid his face with his hands.

'This is so embarrassing,' he said with a barely audible voice.

'Don't worry, it's bound for these things to happen if you date someone this famous…hey, why don't you just make it public? This way…'

'No, I asked Mina-chan and she thinks it's a very bad idea to do so. After her press conference it would look bad for the team if I had changed my mind,' Takumi explained lifting his head so he could face his team mate.

'That's true,' Keisuke agreed.

The two remained quiet and then, Takumi got up from the ground where they were sitting.

'I'm going to the bathroom,' he said.

Keisuke saw him leave as he saw his girlfriend walking towards them. Kyoko and Takumi greeted as they passed each other.

'Is he okay? He's not worried about the photographer incident, is he?' Kyoko asked her boyfriend as she sat next to him, 'your brother's taken care of everything, and just in case, Fumihiro and I have prepared our own press release.'

'I don't think he's worried about that, well, not only about that,' Keisuke explained looking at Kyoko's beautiful face.

'Then, what is it?'

'I think he's freaked out.'

'What do you mean?' Kyoko asked.

'I mean that I'm not so sure anymore that we should have interfered with those two. I have the impression that we've got Takumi into a situation that may be a bit too big for him to handle.'

Kyoko looked at her boyfriend and, even if it hurt her to admit it, she had to agree with him.

'I guess it's always a bit dangerous playing matchmaker,' she commented.

'Yeah,' Keisuke said.

'In any case, Takumi's not alone with this. We'll help him, won't we?' she said.

'Of course,' Keisuke said resolutely.

'You know, compared to his problems with Mina-chan, the start of our relationship seems now so straightforward…' Kyoko said.

'You think so?' Keisuke asked doubtfully, 'chasing your FD with mine down Mt Akagi and you getting a tyre punctured, risking your life in the process, it's not what I call an easy start, you know.'

'Okay, point taken,' Kyoko said laughing.

Three days later, Takumi drove all the way to Mina-chan's house where, they had agreed, would watch a movie together.

After the whole paparazzo incident, the two of them had reached a conclusion: no more outings for them, from then on, they would only see each other in her place or in other similarly safe places.

'Hey, how are you?' Mina-chan said taking the bag full of munchies from Takumi's hands.

'Not bad,' he said bending down to kiss her. Then he followed her all the way to her living room. Her house was even more luxurious than Ryosuke's and it was decorated in an exclusively feminine fashion. Again, this house was occupied by two women, so that was to be expected.

'Where is your mum?' he asked Mina-chan as she took a seat on a plush looking, cream coloured sofa. She looked simply adorable with a tiny light blue summer dress and a ponytail gathering her long hair up.

'She's out for the weekend at a spa,' she said with nonchalance.

'Ah,' Takumi almost gasped. They were on their own? He thought immediately repressing the thought of what could happen if they were indeed alone in the house.

'Are you afraid of being on your own with me?' she asked clearly reading something on his face.

'No,' he replied and that was true for fear was very far from the feeling he was currently experiencing.

She looked startled for a short instant then she giggled and, looking almost embarrassed, busied herself with the TV's remote.

They started watching some random American action movie that she clearly had picked thinking Takumi would have liked something like that. Unfortunately, Takumi found his attention and gaze constantly wandering towards a certain point in Mina-chan's anatomy.

'You like the movie?' he heard her ask and that made him look up at her. He realised that she had seen that he was looking at something entirely different than the TV and that made her blush making her look even cuter.

'Mina-chan, I'm sorry to say this but, I really don't care about the movie,' Takumi said knowing he was gambling big time here.

He saw something not quite identifiable flash in her big, lovely brown eyes. Then, looking at her lap, she said with a tiny voice:

'To tell you the truth, neither do I.'

Takumi considered that as the signal he'd been looking forward to receive. As slowly as possible, he passed his arm around her shoulders and, bending down, he pressed his lips on hers.

Soon, both lost the notion of time and place and, by the time their brain caught up with what was happening, Takumi was half-laying on top of her kissing her neck and with all four of their hands taking over the rest of their senses.

'Wait,' she suddenly whispered sounding completely breathless.

'What's up?' Takumi said, amazed he was able to find his voice.

She then pushed him away a bit so she could get back into a seating position.

'I'm…' she started then, looking away from him, she whispered with such a low tone of voice that Takumi had to strain his ears to hear her, 'I'm a virgin.'

Takumi almost fell off the couch.

'Ah,' he gasped fighting with himself so he could regain his composure.

'I'm sorry…' she said, still refusing to look at him, 'it's just that I'd like my first time to be a bit more…you know…'

'Yeah, don't worry, I get it,' he said and he really thought so even if a part of his anatomy was clearly a bit less inclined to be so understanding.

'Let's just watch the movie, okay?' she said and Takumi, as usual, felt incredibly disorientated when it came to how fast women seemed to change their mind. Compared to that speed, his 86 moved like a snail.

They spent the rest of the evening watching the movie, talking and laughing together. All and all, Takumi enjoyed their time together and, by the time he went home, after arranging to meet up the following evening at the recording studio, he didn't even mind they hadn't had sex all that much.

The next day, at the team's training session, Ryosuke had a surprise for them: a brand new car had just been delivered.

'This is the spare car, now we no longer have to worry about any malfunctions in the main one, not that this means we can go and crash it, alright?' Ryosuke said and, for some reason, he was looking at his younger brother as he said so.

'Aniki!' Keisuke exclaimed making the whole team laugh.

As the mechanics, Ryosuke and Fumihiro included, busied themselves with the spare car, Keisuke walked towards Takumi and said:

'How are things with Mina-chan?'

Takumi looked at him and said:

'They're alright.'

'Ah, I see,' Keisuke said with a smirk, 'still not gone the whole distance, have you?'

Takumi's face turned fuchsia hearing Keisuke being as indelicate as a cactus plant.

'That's none of your business,' Takumi said crossly making Keisuke laugh out loud.

'Ah, this makes me feel so good: I thought I had lost the ability to make you feel embarrassed.'

With this, Keisuke walked away from him still sounding highly amused. Takumi shook his head and damned himself for falling so easily into the trap.

That evening, Takumi was more than eager to see Mina-chan for he found himself more and more often thinking about her. If he wasn't careful, he believed he would end up falling head over heels in love with her.

He arrived at the studio and, after the receptionist checked that he was indeed expected, she sent someone to meet him so he could be accompanied to the studio where Mina-chan recorded all her songs.

'Hi, I'm Sasaki,' a man in his mid-thirties said walking up to him. Takumi recognised in him the man who'd been with Mina-chan that day at the circuit.

'You're Mina-chan's manager, aren't you?' Takumi asked.

'Yes, I am,' he said proudly and a tad in the arrogant side. Takumi wasn't sure why but he definitely disliked something about this guy. In any case, he followed him to an elevator and got on it with him.

They walked into a small room with a couple of dark leather sofas. The whole environment looked very posh and professional, not that Takumi knew very much about the music industry but this seemed like a first class recording studio.

He also realised that one of the walls of the room was made of glass and looking through it, he saw Mina-chan singing in what looked like a sound-proof room. She was giving her back to Takumi so the girl hadn't noticed him yet. Next to where she was, Takumi saw an even smaller room with a couple of sound technicians working on a mixer table. This made him notice that the room was filled with music and over it he could hear Mina-chan's beautiful and powerful voice.

'You must have very influential friends,' he suddenly heard the manager say.

'What?' Takumi asked feeling confused.

'Well, none of my tricks to keep you away from Mina-chan have worked so far, not even the photographer I paid to get a picture of you two.'

'WHAT?' Takumi exclaimed his brain slowly registering what that bastard was saying.

'She's way too good for you and you just don't fit in her world. I'm hoping her infatuation for you won't last too long.'

Takumi felt his blood boil in his veins and he felt the familiar throbbing sensation in his head which warned him he was about to lose it.

'…you're just a pathetic loser and I definitely don't want you anywhere near…'

Sasaki never finished the sentence for Takumi, only half aware of what he was doing, lifted his fist and made it connect as hard as he could with the bastard's jaw.

_To be continued…_


	28. Chapter Twenty Seven

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Seven_

Takumi realised a split second too late that, due to some unfortunate coincidence, Mina-chan had chosen to turn round just as Takumi prepared himself to throw the fourth of a series of punches at her manager who was now half laying on one of the couches.

'What's going on in here?' she asked getting out of the sound-proof room widening her eyes seeing Sasaki's bloodied face.

'Get her back in there!' the manager shouted at the two security guys who had probably been summoned by the sound technicians.

One of them grabbed Mina-chan and pushed her back inside the recording room. The other one, with the manager's help, seized a furious Takumi and soon he found himself dragged out of the room and despite resisting as hard as he could by kicking the two men who were literally carrying him, Takumi ended up being thrown out of the studio rather unceremoniously.

'Wait!' he shouted as they shut the door on his face. He then took out his mobile phone and tried calling Mina-chan, predictably enough, he didn't get any answer. He swore and, seeing that there was nothing he could do, he decided to get back home: he'll try calling her later.

It turned out though that she didn't pick up the phone. Not that night, nor in the whole weekend, nor in the first three days of the following week. He even tried going to her house but no one seemed to answer the bell. Going back to the studio was, of course, out of the question so Takumi found himself out of any viable options to get in touch with his girlfriend.

'Are you alright?' he heard Keisuke ask as the whole team minus Bunta, who had decided to stay home, packed the stuff up early on Wednesday morning so they could head to the Fuji International Speedway in the Shizuoka prefecture, some two hundred and fifty kilometres south east of Gunma.

'Yeah,' he lied and Keisuke, seeing that Takumi clearly didn't feel like talking, decided to let him be.

That same evening, and while the guys were all by the motorhome enjoying their dinner after a hard day of work, Takumi walked away from them and tried, for the umpteenth time, to call Mina-chan. Still no answer. Takumi swore again punching the wall next to him.

'Hey, don't hurt yourself…' Keisuke said startling Takumi. Then, seeing the sombre expression on his team mate's face, he added, 'what's the matter? Are you having problems with Mina-chan?'

Takumi looked at him and, slowly, shook his head.

'To have problems with her I'd need to talk to her!' he exclaimed and, noticing how very confused Keisuke looked, he decided to explain the whole incident to him.

'Wow Takumi! Remind me never to piss you off,' Keisuke said chuckling.

'I'm serious: I don't know what to do! I know something is wrong,' Takumi said beginning to get upset.

'Hey, you can't worry about this now: we've got to focus on the race. You can take care of it as soon as we're back home.'

'But…'

'Takumi, there's nothing you can do now. I'm sure she's not mad at you and even if she is, you just need to explain to her what that bastard said and she'll understand.'

Takumi just nodded not entirely convinced.

The next day they only had a relatively light testing session since the car seemed to work fine. So by the end of the day, both Keisuke and Takumi had only driven the FD for a few runs each so they could familiarise themselves with the track.

'That's enough. You take the rest of the day off. I'm just going to check the data we've got…' Ryosuke said and both Fumihiro and Matsumoto followed him.

Rest. Right, as if Takumi could get any sleep. He kept checking his phone to see if Mina-chan tried calling him but, so far, his phone insisted on being completely mute.

He couldn't shake off the feeling that something was very wrong and he hated not being able to do anything about it but, as Keisuke had pointed out, they had a race to think of and right now, he had to focus on that.

Finally, at around two o'clock in the morning, Takumi managed to get some sleep.

The next day, and even though this third round of the championship was being held at the beginning of May, the sky was a very dark shade of grey and the environment was full of humidity.

'Beautiful day, huh?' Keisuke said sarcastically as the two of them left the motorhome after getting some breakfast.

'Gorgeous,' Matsumoto commented in an identical ironic tone.

'Don't worry, I've just received the weather report and they predict rain only very late in the afternoon. We should be alright,' Ryosuke said approaching his team.

'Good, I definitely don't like rain,' Takumi said and Kenta snorted hearing him. Takumi looked at him frowning and Kenta explained:

'You had me fooled that night at Myogi.'

'Er…' Takumi said scratching the back of his head.

'Enough chatter, let's go,' Ryosuke ordered.

The first one to get back into the car was Keisuke and, in the meantime, Takumi got an individual briefing from Ryosuke who, trying to keep it as simple as he could, explained the characteristics of the track to his driver.

'You've got to be careful with the second sector: it seems like it's flat but it's actually uphill. This may cause some level of strain to the engine and the rear tyres so keep it in mind, alright?'

'Sure,' Takumi said.

When it was time, Takumi boarded the car and, having received the final instructions from his Team Manager, drove out of the box into the pit lane. At first he thought of driving hard so he could vent some of the frustration but then, remembering what had happened the last time he'd driven while angry made him decide to take things relatively easy.

He started his flying lap as the traffic on the track started to ease up so, during the track's first sector he found absolutely nobody. This allowed him to break the first sector's time record and he had the pleasure to receive Ryosuke's praise in real time through the radio.

Takumi liked this track a lot. It wasn't similar to anything he'd experienced before but, he thought, maybe that was precisely the reason why he liked it so much.

Just as he started the second sector, flooring the pedal so the engine would go at full throttle, he noticed a weird vibration coming from somewhere at the back of the car.

'Ryosuke-san, I'm…'

Takumi didn't get the chance to finish what he had to say for, suddenly, he felt something shake up the car and, albeit he fought with all his strength, he couldn't help but to feel the rear of the car lift off leaving only the two front tyres in contact with the ground.

He tried as hard as he could to control the car but, having lost the two tyres which gave traction to the car, he knew that it was an impossible feat. All he could do was to try and prevent the car from crashing or, even worse, capsize.

At the end, thanks to his efforts and to the gravel, he limited the damage by making the car stop somewhere in between the track and the outer wall. Takumi only realised how very shaky his hands were when he released the steering wheel.

'Takumi? Are you alright?' he heard Ryouske's anxious sounding voice through the helmet's earpiece.

'Yeah, I think so,' Takumi said ashamed to notice that his voice was almost as shaky as his hands.

He then realised that the circuit's marshals had already gathered around his car. One of them, leaning over towards the door's window, said:

'Can you get out on your own?'

Takumi nodded as he took his gloves off so he could remove the straps of his seatbelt.

'You were extremely lucky, we thought the car would capsize,' the marshal said making Takumi become aware of how bad things must have looked from the outside.

Takumi had to hold onto the car's door in order not to fall over for his legs felt all wobbly and unable to hold his weight.

'Are you sure you're ok?' another marshal asked.

'Yeah, just a bit shaken up, that's all,' Takumi said.

'Sit down for a bit, alright?' they said while helping him walk towards the circuit's wall.

'Yeah,' he agreed and sat down leaning his back against the wall's cold concrete.

'We'll be sending someone to get you back to the boxes. Are you sure you don't need medical assistance?'

'No, no. I'm okay,' Takumi said and, for the first time, allowed himself to look at the car finally understanding the seriousness of the situation: one of the rear tyres had exploded and it seemed to have bent towards the inside. Probably the suspension had collapsed and that, combined with the high speed, had done the rest.

He was indeed lucky he hadn't taken off with the whole car and this thought made him feel even shakier.

By the time he got driven back to the box, the FD had already arrived and the guys were already looking at it. They all stopped seeing their driver get out of the emergency vehicle.

'Is the car repairable?' Takumi asked looking at his machine with a worried expression on his face.

'That's the last of my worries right now,' Ryosuke said putting his hand on Takumi's shoulder, 'your wellbeing is what's paramount here.'

Keisuke joined them looking positively freaked out.

'Man, that looked bad: half of the car was flying,' he said frowning and biting his lower lip.

'Go and get some rest, I'll be with you shortly so I can check if there's anything wrong with you,' Ryosuke said.

'I'm fine, don't worry,' Takumi said shaking his head.

Nevertheless, he appreciated being able to go back to the motorhome and, the minute he got there, he removed his racing suit and put on a t-shirts and an old pair of jeans. He then laid down on his bed and closed his eyes. He had definitely seen much happier moments in his short life.

'Hey, can I come in?' he heard Keisuke say through the room's thin sliding door.

'Sure,' Takumi said getting up so he could sit on his bed.

Keisuke let himself in and sat next to him.

'Hey, the guys say that there was a problem with the suspension that they hadn't noticed before. You didn't do anything wrong.'

Takumi didn't even seem to acknowledge that.

'…I understand you may be…'

'Keisuke, no offence but I really don't want to talk about it,' Takumi said interrupting his team mate.

'I get it. If you need…'

'Yeah, thanks,' Takumi said laying back down on his bed. Keisuke took that as his cue to leave the room.

He hadn't even enjoyed five minutes of peace when he heard his phone ring. He picked it up with every intention of pressing the button to kill the call when he saw Mina-chan's name on the display.

'Hello?' he said springing up from the bed.

'Takumi, I need your help,' she said in a whisper charged with fear.

'What's wrong?' Takumi said urgently.

'Sasaki has us locked up in the house. I managed to steal my phone from him but he said that if we got in touch with anyone he'd hurt my Mum…I don't know what to do…'

Mina-chan started sobbing and Takumi could tell that she wasn't making it all up: the girl sounded genuinely terrified.

'Minami, don't do anything. I'm on my way,' Takumi said resolutely.

He didn't even let her disagree with him. He pressed the button to finish the conversation and, grabbing his 86's keys, stormed out of the motorhome.

'Takumi what are you…' Ryosuke said seeing his driver up and entering the garage with a very determined look on his face.

'Ryosuke-san, I need to go to Tokyo,' Takumi announced in a tone that made it clear that he wasn't asking for his permission.

'Why?' Ryosuke asked, clearly not impressed, and everyone in the garage looked at Takumi as if he had lost his marbles.

'I…' Takumi started.

'It's anything to do with Mina-chan?' Ryosuke asked and Takumi, seeing how pointless it was to lie to his Team Manager, he nodded.

'Please, I really need to go,' Takumi said, this time using a more reasonable tone.

'Takumi, you need to rest, not drive over two hours and back to do goodness knows what,' Ryosuke said sorely missing Bunta Fujiwara's influence for he was sure the old man would know how to handle Takumi much better than he would ever do.

'Please, I wouldn't ask if this wasn't an emergency,' Takumi insisted stubbornly.

Ryosuke looked at him for a bit, probably considering his options before saying:

'Alright, after all, we've finished the qualifying session. I just hope you know what you're doing.'

Takumi nodded and, turning round, he got out of the garage.

'What's happened?' Keisuke asked while following his team mate towards his car clearly not happy with Takumi's cryptic explanation.

'That bastard of her manager has her and her mum locked up and is threatening to hurt her mother if she tries to get in touch with anyone…' Takumi explained as fast as he could while sprinting towards the AE86. He was definitely happy he'd paid attention to the uneasiness that had made him bring his own car to this race.

'What?' Keisuke exclaimed sounding almost as pissed off as Takumi.

'Yeah, that's why I need to go.'

'Right you are! And I'm coming with you!' Keisuke said walking over to the passenger side of the Toyota.

'What? No way,' Takumi said his hand halted half way to the door's lock.

'Look, I doubt that prick is going to let you get her out of the house without putting up a fight and, more likely than not, he'll have help. Takumi, even if I hate to admit it, when it comes to fights, I'm the expert here.'

Takumi, realising Keisuke was right, decided to give in and said:

'Alright, but you need to get your brother's permission.'

'Nah…with you doing the driving, he won't even notice I've gone anywhere before I'm back,' Keisuke said with his usual boyish cheekiness.

As he climbed into the car, Takumi felt grateful he had such good friends and, as he turned the AE86's engine on he felt all the anger coming back at him fuelling his determination to get to Tokyo as soon as possible so he could rescue Mina-chan and her mum.

If he wanted to be honest with himself, he really was looking forward to give that bastard of a manager a good beating and, with Keisuke's help, he was sure he'd get his wish pretty soon.

_To be continued…_


	29. Chapter Twenty Eight

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Eight_

Neither of them spoke in the entire journey from Shizuoka to Tokyo. Keisuke broke this silence only as they entered the city and as Takumi started slowing down:

'No, no, stay on the accelerator,' he said.

'What?' Takumi asked confused by the fact that surely his team mate could see the traffic ahead of them.

'Well, you've broken every single speed limit so far, why stop now?' Keisuke said making Takumi look at him.

Keisuke was a bit on the pale side and was grasping his seat with both hands.

'Are you ok?' Takumi asked rather pointlessly.

'What do you think?' Keisuke asked sarcastically, 'boy, you and your old man both drive like maniacs.'

'Right, because you take it so easy with your FD,' countered Takumi.

'That's different,' Keisuke defended himself, 'I only go fast when I race.'

Takumi interrupted him with a disbelieving snort.

'Alright, alright, now let's just go and rescue the damsel in distress, shall we?' Keisuke said knowing he'd lost this confrontation.

'In any case, making it to Tokyo in just over an hour is mental,' Keisuke added.

'It's only a hundred and seventy kilometres,' Takumi justified himself.

'I rest my case,' Keisuke said with a smirk.

They drove through several major streets until they got to the residential area where the singer lived.

'Nice neighbourhood,' Keisuke commented.

'Yeah, wait till you see the house,' Takumi said.

'We should park the car a bit before we arrive there,' Keisuke suggested.

'Why is that?'

'Because we don't want to be seen, do we?'

'Okay, I get it,' Takumi said and parked his 86 just a block away from where Mina-chan's house was. Both he and Keisuke left the car and then Keisuke started behaving oddly.

'What are you doing?' Takumi asked seeing that Keisuke was walking funny while staring at some point straight ahead of him.

'Looking for cameras, they're bound to have at least one pointing at the entrance's gate,' Keisuke said.

'What are you? Ethan Hunt?' Takumi asked sarcastically.

'Nope, I've just sneaked in and out my parents' house often enough,' Keisuke said shrugging.

'Ah, I see. You're scary sometimes, you know that?' Takumi said.

'Look who's talking…now, be quiet, I'm trying to concentrate here,' Keisuke said still staring at the gate.

Finally, after a short while which tested Takumi's patience to its limits, Keisuke said:

'Right, I've figured out how to get inside, follow me and don't make any noise. Remember is still broad daylight and people will be able to see us easily if we're not careful.'

Takumi gave up trying to understand his team mate and decided to obey every one of his orders, after all, Takumi realised that Keisuke probably knew what he was doing.

The two young men walked around the house's wall, leaving the main gate behind, and at a certain point, Keisuke looked both ways, checked once more for any hidden cameras and, bending his knees and pressing both of his hands against the wall, he said:

'Right, use my body to climb up the wall.'

'What?' Takumi said alarmed.

'Do it,' Keisuke said using the famous Takahashi commanding voice.

'Alright…' Takumi said and, using his team mate's knees, he placed one of his feet there, then pushing himself up, he put his feet on both of Keisuke's shoulders. That put him high enough for him to be able to grasp the top of the wall which, thankfully, didn't have any spiky wiring or other anti-theft devices. Again, that was a very peaceful area of Tokyo and, even the city itself was known for being safe enough.

Soon, he found himself on the top of the wall and, from there, he asked:

'Now, what do I do?'

'There's a small door next to the main gate. Go and open it for me so I can get inside too,' Keisuke said.

'Alright,' Takumi said and, jumping from the wall, he reached the ground, crushing a bed of flowers in the process. He then ran as fast as he could towards that small door which, thankfully, could easily be opened from the inside.

'Good job, now we've got to go to the house,' Keisuke said and, this time, he decided to just run towards the house's door, forgetting all about being as stealth as they had been up to then. Takumi still didn't understand anything so he continued following the self-proclaimed leader of this whole operation.

'Hey, you!' someone shouted from the door which opened up just as they had reached the flight of stairs that led to the villa's entrance.

Takumi looked up and saw the hateful face of that bastard of a manager. He felt his fists tense up, his body preparing itself for the fight even before his mind was aware of it.

Both Takumi and Keisuke reached the top of the stairs and Takumi was about to throw a punch at the guy when he saw that there were three other, much bigger guys behind him.

'Four against two, I've had worse,' he heard Keisuke say.

'Really?' the manager said, 'these guys here are professionally trained. I doubt a brat like you will cause them any damage,' the manger said laughing in a disgustingly arrogant manner.

'Where's Mina-chan?' Takumi asked him.

'Safe from you, thank goodness. You know that she actually thinks she's in love with you? Preposterous!' the manager said then, with a smirk, he said to the guys behind him, 'remove these two scumbags from this property.'

'Keisuke…' Takumi said looking at his team mate who looked oddly calm. This made one of the guys behind Sasaki frown.

'What did you call him?' the guy grunted talking to Takumi.

'Keisuke. That's his name: Takahashi Keisuke,' Takumi replied and the guy's eyes became as wide as two saucers.

'Oh my…' another of the guys said.

'Are you the Takahashi Keisuke from the North Kanto Bikers?' the first guy said and Takumi saw the manager looking from Takumi to Keisuke and from that to the guys behind him.

Keisuke nodded and then something weird happened: the three guys walked from behind the manager and joined both Keisuke and Takumi.

'I'm sorry but we can't possibly touch him,' the first guy said pointing at Keisuke with his thump.

'Why not?' Sasaki said alarmed.

'Because if we do, our Aniki will kill us: he's a great friend of Keisuke-san,' the third of the guys, the one that hadn't spoken up to now said.

Sasaki suddenly looked terrified.

'But I pay you! You've got to do what I say!'

'Nope, sorry. Money doesn't matter when it comes to our brotherhood,' the first guy said.

'Is there anything we can do for you Keisuke-san?' the second added and Takumi couldn't help but to be impressed with Keisuke: the guy had so many powerful friends.

'Yeah, remove this scumbag from this property,' Keisuke said smiling at Sasaki in a way that even Takumi got freaked out.

Two of the three guys grabbed Sasaki and started dragging him down the stairs.

'Wait!' Takumi said and they stopped, 'you stay away from Minami. If I see you anywhere near her, I'll beat you up so badly that your own mother won't be able to recognise you, got it?'

'I'm her manager,' Sasaki started.

'Consider yourself fired,' Keisuke said.

'You can't fire me!' Sasaki shouted.

'No, he can't but I can!' they suddenly heard a female voice saying from one of the house's windows.

'Minami!' Takumi exclaimed, 'I'm coming up to let you out.'

'Yeah, you do that while I take care of things here,' Keisuke said.

Takumi didn't need to be told twice. He ran inside the house and up the stairs checking every one of the doors he found on his way. He finally found a locked one and, pushing with all his might, managed to get it open.

'Takumi!' Mina-chan said running into his arms. She started crying against his chest and Takumi hugged her as tightly as possible against it.

Takumi realised that there was another woman in the room and, by the looks of her, she was an older version of Mina-chan, she was the singer's mother.

'Hi,' he said timidly.

'You must be the famous Fujiwara Takumi,' the woman said with a relieved smile that made the resemblance with her daughter even more obvious.

'Yeah,' Mina-chan said, with her voice broken because of the tears and refusing to let go of Takumi's arm.

'Well, young man, if you were looking for my acceptance to have you in my daughter's life, you've more than earned it. I'm happy she's dating you,' the woman said and Takumi's ears started to get oddly warm.

Takumi didn't know what to say to that, then looking at Mina-chan, he said:

'He didn't hurt you or your mum, did he?'

Mina-chan shook her head and her eyes started filling up with brand new tears.

'I can't believe I trusted him.'

'Hey, we all make mistakes,' he said passing his arm around her shoulders while walking her to the couch.

'I'm thinking of quitting. I can't cope with this anymore,' Mina-chan said miserably as she sat down next to Takumi.

'I think she should quit too,' her mother said startling Takumi, 'we don't need anymore money and I definitely don't want her to be this unhappy.'

Takumi looked at Mina-chan's mother and then he looked back at his girlfriend:

'I don't agree with that. Minami, you love music. Just because you've had a bad experience you shouldn't quit doing something you like. If you do, the only one who wins is Sasaki.'

'You think so?' Mina-chan said looking up, wiping some of the tears with her hands.

'He's right, you know,' Keisuke said having entered the room unnoticed.

'I don't know what to do,' Mina-chan said shaking her head and looking down at the floor.

'Why don't you just take a short break? Take some time off so you can think things through…' Takumi suggested and Mina-chan looked at him for a bit. Then she nodded.

'Yes, I'd like that.'

'Alright, now, two of the guys are escorting the bastard back to his Benz, I've asked them to stay here so they can take care of you two,' Keisuke said looking at the women in the room.

'That guy's driving a Benz?' Takumi asked.

'Yeah, what a horrible taste in cars,' Keisuke said and Takumi found himself agreeing wholeheartedly: he'd just been given one more reason to keep Benz cars on top of his black list.

'Oh, I just remembered! Aren't you supposed to race tomorrow?' Mina-chan asked.

'Yes, I am,' Takumi said.

'Go! What are you waiting for?' Mina-chan said getting up from the sofa, startling Takumi by her sudden change of mood. Again, Takumi was getting used to the singer's unpredictable personality.

'Er…are you sure you're going to be alright?' he asked her.

'Yes, er…Mum…' she said looking at her mother.

'Ah, yes, let's go downstairs, shall we?' she said taking Keisuke by his arm and walking out of the room.

Mina-chan hugged Takumi again and, tilting her head upwards, waited for Takumi to meet her halfway so they could kiss.

'Thanks for rescuing me. This is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me,' Mina-chan said. Takumi just smiled, 'what do you say if, after the race, we meet up here. My mum will probably need another weekend at the spa to recover from this ordeal.'

'Minami…' Takumi started.

'Shush…I'm going to carefully plan a very romantic evening so I can show you how grateful I am.'

Takumi felt his heart as it started beating faster than ever.

'Alright…' he said and Mina-chan smiled shyly.

'Now, go and win this race so we can celebrate the victory too,' Mina-chan said and Takumi decided then that he was definitely in love with her.

_To be continued…_


	30. Chapter Twenty Nine

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Twenty Nine_

Needless to say, and with the kind of encouragement Minami had given him, Takumi did everything in his power to bring his car first at the finish line.

It was the team's second victory in three races and, by the end of the race, everyone in the paddock started looking at the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team from a different point of view: whereas before they had just been seen as a young, inexperienced team, now they began regarding it as a serious opponent and therefore a threat.

'Hey, where are you going?' Takumi heard Keisuke ask him as he was climbing onto his 86.

'Tokyo,' he simply replied.

'Ah, what am I supposed to tell everybody?' Keisuke asked.

'I don't know…make something up,' Takumi said starting his car and leaving before Keisuke could complain.

This time it took Takumi almost two hours to get to Tokyo and, by the time he arrived at his girlfriend's house, it was already dark.

'Hey, how are you?' he asked Minami after being let in by one of the bodyguards Keisuke had left there to protect the two women of the house.

'Not bad. Still a bit shaken up but I'm happy Mum's feeling much better. She's actually had a brilliant idea.'

'What is it?' Takumi asked as the two of them took a seat on the couch.

'Well, you know how my mother goes very often to a spa, right?' Minami said and, seeing him nod, added, 'right, so, the ryokan where she stays is owned by her best friend and she said that it would do us good if we spent the next weekend there.'

'We?' Takumi said almost afraid that this 'we' included Minami's Mum too.

'Yeah, you and I,' Minami explained.

'Ah, right,' Takumi said feeling relieved.

'Only that I thought that, as a thank you for helping us so much, I could include in the invitation your team mate and his girlfriend. And maybe, if they want, your Team Manager and his wife could come with us too, I understand that it was her who got us out of trouble with the photographer.'

'Ah that would be good, only that Ryosuke-san and his wife have a small baby boy,' Takumi explained.

'They're welcome to take the baby with them. I know that both the ryokan and the spa are happy to have entire families as guests,' Minami said.

'Ah, well, I will ask them. I think they too need to take a break,' Takumi said.

'Okay, let me know so I can ask my mum to book the rooms for us,' Minami said.

'What about your break, how are you going to handle that?' Takumi asked.

'Ah, well, I've talked to the Avex people this morning and they're sorry to hear that I've had to fire my manager. In any case, they understand that I need time to find a new one so, if I fulfil the events that I have scheduled for the next two weeks, I should be free to take at least three or four months off.'

'And what do you have in program?' Takumi asked.

'A concert, a TV appearance, two interviews and a photo shot for a magazine,' Minami replied.

'Wow, that's a lot,' Takumi commented.

'I know but, if I can look forward to a long break after that,' Minami said.

The two spent the rest of the evening chatting and having dinner with Minami's mum who happened to be a really nice person making Takumi forget that potentially she could be his future mother-in-law.

On Saturday, very early in the morning, Takumi found himself driving Minami in his 86 from Tokyo to Maebashi where they would meet up with the Takahashi.

To his immense surprise, Ryosuke had been very enthusiastic of the idea of spending a weekend at a spa with the whole family. He said that it was probably what they all needed now: get away from the cities and the stress they brought with them.

'Hey,' Takumi greeted them as he saw Keisuke loading some bags into the MPV. Kyoko was strapping seven month old Kyo-chan onto his baby car seat, a Recaro one shaped in the form of a mini bucket seat complete with a four point seatbelt.

'Kyoko, did you take Kyosuke's bag?' Akiko said appearing through the opened house's main door.

'Yeah, it's here,' Kyoko shouted back.

'Ah, okay. I'll go and get Ryosuke then,' she said disappearing again so fast that she hadn't even noticed Takumi and Minami. The singer smiled.

'That's Ryosuke-san's wife, isn't she?'

'Yep,' Takumi replied.

As he did so, the oldest of the Takahashi brothers walked out of the house with a computer bag hanging off his broad shoulder. So much for relaxation, Takumi thought to himself. He doubted Ryosuke-san knew what the word 'relax' meant.

After the customary introductions, Ryosuke sat behind the MPV's wheel, with his brother sitting next to him and both women sitting in the back with Kyo-chan in between them.

Takumi and Minami were back in the 86 for it would be them leading the way to the Kanbayashi Onsen in the neighbouring prefecture of Nagano. Keisuke had argued that Mt Akagi had a very good spa too but the facts that in Kanbayashi they had free accommodation in a very good ryokan and that Jigokudani and its monkey park was nearby completely beat any points Keisuke might have used to support his theory to stay home.

Takumi suspected that Keisuke was just upset that he had to leave his FD behind…

In any case, when they arrived at the ryokan, Keisuke was the first one to comment on the beautiful building and the fabulous landscape one could see from it.

The ryokan itself was actually inside the Kanbayashi Onsen so they could enjoy their baths and walk back to their rooms wearing the yukata.

'I want to go and see the monkeys,' Kyoko said as soon as all six of them, plus Kyo-chan, met in the ryokan's hall.

'Alright,' Ryosuke said agreeing with her.

They walked the short distance between the ryokan and the monkey park talking, laughing and generally having a good time. This 'family trip' made Takumi feel strange and made him wonder whether Minami felt the same way too.

'So, this is what family life feels like…' Minami whispered voicing Takumi's thoughts and confirming his suspicions.

'Yeah, I guess so…' he said shrugging for he didn't now much more than Minami about what it meant to have a normal family. Even thought his father and Minami's mum had done their best to raise them on their own, he knew that he had missed out something very important without his mother being there.

Later on, and after enjoying a really tasty dinner, the girls and the boys separated themselves to go and enjoy the spa.

'Wow,' Kyoko said looking at Minami as she removed her yukata, 'what do you do?'

Minami turned a delicate shade of pink as she realised what Kyoko was talking about.

'Not much really,' she replied for it was true. Other than swimming regularly in her house's swimming pool, Minami didn't do any other sports, mainly due to the lack of time to do so.

'Well, I know I'll never have a stomach as flat as the ones you two have ever again,' Akiko commented joining them with her son.

'Hey, now that's silly, you've just had a baby!' Kyoko protested.

They quickly submerged themselves in the hot spring water, happy that they had been given a private room so they could be just the three of them alone.

'Akiko-san, have you and Ryosuke-san been together for a long time?' Minami asked.

'No, not really, just under two years,' Akiko replied while taking care that Kyo-chan didn't get too warm.

'Ah, I thought you two had been together for much longer,' Minami commented.

'It seems that way, doesn't it?' Kyoko intervened and Minami nodded.

'Sometimes I wonder if Keisuke and I will ever have that kind of relationship,' Kyoko commented.

'What do you mean?' Akiko asked.

'You know, the way you and Ryosuke always seem to know what the other is thinking,' Kyoko explained.

'That's not true,' Akiko tried to deny but Kyoko snorted and said:

'It is. Sometimes you and Ryosuke are scary: you don't even look at each other but are able to finish each other sentences and, how often does it happen that you two say the same things at the same time?'

'Alright…it's just that our minds are very much alike…that's it. You and Keisuke have loads in common too,' Akiko said.

'Yeah, but I don't know how we'd be if we got married. If we ever get married that is.'

'Why are you saying that?' Minami asked making Kyoko miss the way Akiko almost dropped her baby son into the hot water.

'Oh is just that Keisuke's very independent. I don't know if he needs me all that much…'

'What?' Akiko exclaimed startling even poor Kyo-chan who looked at his mother as if she had gone nuts.

'You heard me. Keisuke…'

'Kyoko,' Akiko started and, by the firm tone of voice she used, Kyoko knew she was in for one of Akiko's tell-off sessions, 'Keisuke adores you. He's so desperately in love with you that he doesn't even want to be away from you during the races. I seriously doubt Ryosuke would want me anywhere near the boxes during a race. Keisuke loves you and, I know for a fact that he doesn't intend to make you wait forever before he'll propose.'

'You do?' Kyoko asked and Akiko realised that she had said a bit too much.

'Yeah, he's already proposed, hasn't he?' she said trying to fix her mistake.

'No, he said he wanted to marry me but that wasn't an official proposal. You're saying here that he intends to propose to me soon,' Kyoko, sharp as always, observed.

'Maybe,' Akiko said with an enigmatic smile.

'Akiko…' Kyoko said using a warning tone of voice.

'I know nothing and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you, not even under torture,' Akiko said then, considering the topic as closed, she turned to Minami: 'so, tell me Mina-chan, how did you become a singer?'

Minami, taken slightly aback, took a couple of seconds to reply:

'Er…well, my Mum used to be a music teacher and she realised that I had a very good ear for music and that my voice was powerful enough so, with the right training, I became a good enough singer to make my professional debut. My first song was for an animated series' opening and it became quite successful so soon Avex asked me to sign a contract with them.'

'That is very impressive indeed,' Akiko said without any trace of mockery in her voice.

'Isn't it?' Kyoko said, 'you know that after meeting you in person it's difficult to believe that you're such a huge star,' Kyoko commented and, seeing Mina-chan's confused face made her hastily add, 'it's because one expects to meet this very arrogant diva, not such a down to earth girl.'

'Ah, well…this is me. Mina-chan, the singer, appears only when I'm on stage,' Minami said shrugging.

The three women talked for a while then they all went to the rooms where, hopefully, their partners would be waiting for them.

Minami was extremely nervous as she entered the room she shared with Takumi. She had never slept in the same room with a man and she knew that that night she would do a lot more than just sleep with Takumi.

As she slid the door closed, she hoped everything would go well.

'The baths are fantastic,' Takumi commented, clearly eager to put her at ease with herself and the situation.

'Yeah, they are, aren't they?' she replied her voice shaking a little.

'Look, we don't have to do it if you don't want…' Takumi said getting serious and walking up to her. She observed his body clad in a yukata that made him look even sexier than she remembered.

'No, I want to do it,' she said and it was true. She really wanted for this to happen. If only she were a lot less tense...maybe she'd have to go and take another bath.

'That's good. Because I'm dying to do this,' Takumi said very honestly. Then he took Minami's face in his hands and, bending down slightly to compensate the height difference, he kissed her very softly.

She moaned almost inaudibly and that made Takumi deepen the kiss. So far they weren't doing anything beyond of what they had already done so Minami forced herself to relax.

Only when Takumi took her in his arms to walk with her to the futon she started to become aware of what was about to happen.

'Can you turn off the light?' she whispered shyly.

Takumi nodded and, after putting her down on the soft fabric of their traditional Japanese bed, he walked towards the switch and, instead of completely turning the light off, he dimmed it low enough for him to barely see where he was going.

'Better?' he asked.

'Yeah, much better,' he heard her whisper back.

He walked back to the futon and, laying next to her, they started kissing again. Their kisses and caresses soon became rather urgent and at some point, Minami wasn't sure how it had actually happened, she found herself beneath Takumi nodding as he asked her if she was ready.

It became almost instantly obvious that she was nowhere near ready.

'Ouch,' she complained after trying, in vain, to cope with the amount of pain she was feeling.

'You're alright?' Takumi asked stopping.

'Yeah,' she said but her tone of voice and her tensed up body said something different.

Takumi tried once more but Minami whimpered again. The young man realised that she was too tense and it was hurting her too much for him to feel like carrying on.

'Takumi?' Minami asked seeing as her boyfriend was removing himself from the top of her body.

'It's not good. I'm hurting you too much,' he said taking her hand and kissing it tenderly.

'I'm sorry,' she said feeling utterly miserable.

'It's not your fault. It's just that…' he started then, taking a deep breath, he admitted, 'I've never been with…you know…and I don't know how to…you know…'

Minami didn't say anything.

'Why don't we just sleep? We can try again some other time,' Takumi proposed and, even if he tried his best to hide it, Minami could tell that he felt extremely frustrated. This just made Minami feel even worse.

'Okay,' she said and, just as she prepared herself to get inside the futon, she saw Takumi get up to go to the bathroom.

That night, Minami cried herself to sleep.

_To be continued…_


	31. Chapter Thirty

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Thirty_

Minami woke up noticing that there were several things out of the norm in that Sunday morning. To start with, she wasn't wearing anything else than a very badly wrinkled yukata and not her usual silky nightie. Another thing was that she was sleeping on a futon and not on her nice western style bed. The things that definitely were out of the ordinary were the arm that she had laid across her waist, hugging her in a rather possessive manner, and the man who was attached to said arm.

Turning round, she saw Takumi's peaceful, sleeping face. He looked so absolutely adorable that Minami had to repress the urge to kiss him.

Then she remembered what had happened, or rather, what had not happened the night before and that made her get up from the floor as slowly and quietly as possible. She still didn't know that waking Takumi up required a lot more than that…

By the time Takumi himself woke up, Minami was nowhere to be seen. Remembering her badly stifled sobs, he got up and, still feeling angry at himself, he decided to get dressed so he could look for her.

He found her at the ryokan's breakfast room with Kyoko and Ryosuke.

'Good morning,' he said as he too took a seat, 'where are Keis…'

'Keisuke is still sleeping and Akiko's feeding Kyo-chan,' Kyoko supplied.

'Ah, alright,' Takumi said serving himself some tea.

'Mina-chan here was telling us about her concert,' Ryosuke said.

'Ah…' Takumi said and, looking across the table at his girlfriend, he couldn't help but to notice the way she avoided looking at him in the eye.

'She's been kind enough to invite us and, of course, we've accepted the invitation,' Kyoko added.

'Ah, really…when is the concert?' Takumi asked Minami hoping that this would force her to look at him.

'Next Friday,' she replied looking at him for the tiniest instant before busying herself with a piece of toast.

'Ah, okay,' he just said and, not knowing if he could assume that the invitation included him too, he just chose to remain silent. Ryosuke and Kyoko noticed that and, without needing to say anything to each other, they understood something had happened and they both decided to give the couple some room so they could sort their problems on their own.

'Honey, Kyosuke's not feeling too well this morning and he's got a bit of temperature,' Akiko said coming into the breakfast room with a very subdued looking Kyo-chan.

'Let me see,' Ryosuke said feeling with the back of his hand his son's little forehead, 'yes, he's a bit too warm. Sorry guys, but I think it's better if we head back home.'

'Yeah, I think so too, I'll go and drag Keisuke out of bed,' Kyoko said getting up from the table.

'You two can stay here if you want,' Akiko said talking to Minami.

'No, I think we'd better go home too,' Minami said and Akiko couldn't help but to notice that she hadn't even checked with Takumi before making the decision.

The trip back home was nothing short of a nightmare for Takumi. Travelling with a very moody Minami sitting next to him staring stubbornly out of her window and refusing to utter a single word in the whole three hours the trip lasted was a bit more of what Takumi could handle.

'Minami I…' he tried, for the umpteenth time as they approached the motorway's exit for North Tokyo and, for a brief second it looked as though as she was going to reply when her mobile phone started ringing:

'Hello?' she said answering it and, for the following fifteen minutes, she was engaged in a conversation with what sounded like a girlfriend of hers so, by the time they finally entered the lane that led to Minami's house, they still hadn't talked.

'I'll call you sometime next week, okay?' she said as she got out of the car.

'Minami…' he said taking her hand so she couldn't run away. She snatched it out of his grasp and, as her eyes started to get glassy, she blinked a couple of times and started running towards the house's main door.

Seeing it was useless to go after her in the state she was now, Takumi started the car and drove back to Shibukawa being happy to go back home after such a disastrous weekend. He spent the rest of the day sleeping.

Still feeling horribly guilty, the next day he went to the circuit for the team's mid-month meeting and there, he found Kyoko looking at him in a really weird way. She waited until Ryosuke issued the orders of the day for everybody so she could talk to Takumi.

'What's up?' Takumi said even though he suspected the subject of this particular conversation.

'What happened last weekend with you and Minami?' she said and Takumi thought her to be unusually bold and he considered very seriously to ignore her question but then she added, 'she looked absolutely devastated when she showed up in the breakfast room…'

'Of course she did,' he said, more to himself than to Kyoko.

'What happened?' she insisted and, Takumi, sighing loudly, decided to surrender:

'It's what didn't happen that matters.'

'Ah, I see. If you need some advice…'

'Kyoko, no offence but I think it's very weird if…you know…'

'Would you prefer talking to Akiko or Ryosuke? After all, they are doctors you know…'

'Oh gosh, no, that'd be even worse!' Takumi exclaimed looking positively freaked out.

'Well, what about Keisuke, or maybe one of your friends?'

'Nah, they'd just get mad or laugh at me,' Takumi said miserably.

'Your dad?' Kyoko tried once more and the look Takumi gave her spoke volumes, 'alright mate, I think you're out of options here,' she said.

Takumi, deciding he needed to tell someone and that Kyoko was probably his only viable option, he proceeded to tell her everything about the weekend and, surprisingly enough, she listened to him without judging nor laughing. Then, she gave him some very important, albeit horribly embarrassing tips and, after reassuring him for the hundredth time that he had done nothing wrong, she sent him to the motorhome to get changed.

The day of the concert arrived and Takumi had only received a text message from Minami confirming the time and place of the concert and that he and the Takahashi's would have Backstage Passes. Like if he cared about that! All Takumi wanted was to see her for he really needed to talk to her.

Needless to say, they got inside the huge basketball arena where the concert would be held beating the long queue of people who stood there waiting to be let in.

'It's good being treated as VIP's,' Kyoko commented playing with the plastic badge that hung off her neck. At the end and since Kyo-chan seemed to be suffering from a cold, both Akiko and Ryosuke had decided to stay home so Takumi was playing third wheel with Keisuke and his girlfriend.

For this reason, he started looking around the backstage trying to see if he could catch a glimpse of the singer who, obviously, was very busy getting ready for the show and, unfortunately for him, was nowhere to be seen.

At long last, and seeing that the concert was about to begin, Takumi reluctantly followed Keisuke and Kyoko to the front of the stage where the VIP's had their designated area.

As soon as the concert started, the public began to go crazy and, as they heard the first notes of the first song, they all started singing along with Mina-chan.

Takumi was so mesmerized looking at his beautiful girlfriend's transformation into a superstar that, at first, he didn't hear the feminine voice that kept calling his name.

'Takumi-kun! Takumi-kuuun!'

'Hey, there's a girl there who keeps shouting your name,' Keisuke said talking into Takumi's ear while pointing at a girl standing nearby, in the normal public's area. Takumi felt his heart stop for a couple of painful seconds.

'Mogi,' he muttered as he recognised the girl. He found himself walking towards her even before he was aware of getting up from his chair at all.

'Hey! Thank goodness your friend has heard me!' she shouted so he could hear her over the music. She was smiling happily and Takumi was surprised to find that his old feelings for her seemed to be definitely dead. He just couldn't see her as anything else but a pretty girl who happened to be really sweet too.

'Yeah, the music's loud,' he said.

'What?' she shouted back and then, seeing it was useless, she grabbed him by his shoulder so he could talk to her in her ear.

As she did so, he turned his face towards the stage so he could check on Minami. Unfortunately, both motions put together meant that their noses and part of their lips grazed for the briefest of moments and, even worse was that right at that instant, Minami chose to look at that part of her public.

The shock of seeing what looked like her boyfriend kissing another girl made the singer skip a few words of the song and, by the time she had caught up, Takumi having seen the whole thing from his point of view, felt like he had been punched in the stomach.

'It's such a coincidence! I didn't even know you liked Mina-chan…' he barely heard a very flustered looking Natsuki.

'Look, I've got to go. I'll call you,' he said leaning towards Natsuki so she would hear him.

'Alright,' she said looking extremely disappointed.

He spent the rest of the concert trying to catch Minami's eye but the singer refused quite categorically to look at where he was.

'It was great! I can't believe she's my friend!' Kyoko said to Keisuke who, even if he normally didn't enjoy that kind of music, had had loads of fun.

'Guys, I'll see you, I've got to…' Takumi said.

'Yeah, don't worry,' Keisuke said waving him away with his hand.

'Say hi to her from us!' Kyoko said.

'Yeah,' he mumbled as he tried to make his way back to the part of the stage where he hoped he would find Minami.

'Where do you think you're going?' one of the security guys said as he tried to walk into a corridor.

'I've got this…' he started to say showing the badge that supposedly allowed him access to the backstage.

'That's for the area up to here,' the security guy said drawing an imaginary line with his index finger, 'from here onwards, it's for Mina-chan and her staff.'

'I'm a friend of Mina-chan,' Takumi said already knowing that his attempt was as useless as it was pathetic.

'Yeah, and I'm Madonna,' the security guy said ironically then, getting serious, he said, 'look, she's got too many friends already, why don't you go and get drunk or something like that.'

Takumi really wanted to punch this guy but he knew that doing so would only land him in trouble and nowhere near Minami so, doing something he'd learned in all those years with Ryosuke, he forced himself to calm down and analyse the situation with a cold head.

Finally, he came up with a plan: walking to the outdoor parking where he had left his car, he climbed into the AE86 and drove it to the only possible exit that any cars driving out of indoor car park could take.

He then climbed out of his car and waited patiently till he saw the gate open. At first only a service van got out but soon he saw a limousine drive out and, luckily enough, the window was half open and through that he saw Minami: she looked exhausted and she was crying.

With his heart in a knot, he got back into his Toyota, started it and began following the limousine.

The chase wasn't very fast nor very long for, after only ten minutes, the long and black car stopped, forcing Takumi to do the same.

As he saw the limousine's driver getting out of the car, Takumi, going as fast as he could, climbed out of his car and, running to the limousine's passenger door, he lowered himself so he could look into the car through the window and said:

'Minami, we need to talk.'

The girl looked at him trying hard to appear unconcerned about his presence there.

'Where's your girlfriend?' she asked bitterly.

'What?' he shouted then, whispering so the approaching driver couldn't hear him, he said: 'Minami YOU are my girlfriend…'

He didn't have time to say anything else because two rough hands grabbed him and removed him from the car's side.

'Hey, get your hands off me!' he shouted at the guy then, looking towards the car, he shouted even louder, 'Minami! Please! I love you!'

That made the car's door open.

'Please let him go,' she said to the driver, 'get in,' she said to Takumi who obeyed the instant he was free from the driver's grasp.

'Minami…'

'Who was that girl?' she asked, jealousy brutally imprinted in her voice.

'That was Mogi Natsuki. I dated her for a while during high school but she means nothing to me now. You have to believe me,' Takumi said and the desperation in his voice seemed to convince Minami that he was telling her the truth.

'That kiss didn't seem like nothing,' she said nonetheless.

'That was an accident. I was turning the face one way and she turned hers the other…Minami, I've been dying to see you and it killed me not being able to find you.'

'Not as much as it killed me seeing you kiss that girl while I found myself incapable of doing what I wanted to do.'

'You can slap me now if that makes you feel better,' Takumi offered.

'Who said anything about slapping you? I would have slapped her! Like you said, you are my boyfriend, not hers!' Minami said being back to the determined girl Takumi loved so much. He allowed himself a brief smile that died as he saw her face darken once more.

'Minami…'

'I almost died when I saw you with her. I didn't want to talk to you earlier because I thought that you were thinking of dumping me because I couldn't… you know…'

'What? Are you mad? I would never dump you for something like that! Even less because it was my fault,' Takumi said.

'It wasn't your fault,' Minami said.

'Yes it was, I should have done a few extra things that apparently make the whole thing easier,' Takumi said, determined to keep his conversation with Kyoko a secret he'd take to his grave, 'In any case, I intend to be with you even if we don't do it. If you're not ready now, I'll wait for you.'

'But I want to do it,' she said blushing and Takumi was grateful the driver had decided to stay far enough as to give them some privacy.

'If you want, we'll do it but I don't want to put any pressure on you,' Takumi said.

Minami looked at him and, after meditating something for a while, she said:

'Can you stay over my place this weekend?'

'Er…yes, I guess so,' Takumi replied.

'Perfect. Because I'd like to try a few of those 'extra things' you're supposed to do,' she said with a wicked smile.

_To be continued…_


	32. Chapter Thirty One

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Chapter Thirty One _

The Kirin Takahashi Racing Team needed to win this race. Takumi kept repeating this sentence in his head as some sort of karmic mantra to help him go faster.

Because of the slim difference in the scores, if they didn't get full points in this race, they would remain in second position and the NA-1's team would end up winning the championship with only one single point of advantage.

Takumi was prepared to die in order to prevent this from happening.

Just before this last race, Ryosuke had told the whole team that if they finished in second place overall, he'd be very happy for it would mean to finish above his predicted target. He also said that, after all, this was only their first year in the GT300 championship so they could consider themselves lucky to have done so incredibly well.

However, neither Takumi nor Keisuke nor the rest of the team were convinced by Ryosuke's speech: everyone knew that their Team Manager was just saying this to make them feel better and, precisely for this reason, they were all even more determined to win the championship so Ryosuke would have a real reason to be happy and proud of his men.

So now, when the moment of truth had finally come and with a long series of really aggressive manoeuvres, some of them downright insane, Takumi managed to get the car in second position. With his job far from being over, Takumi spent the last of his allocated laps driving like a madman. It was getting so bad that, at some point, the team stopped talking to him, fearing that the smallest of distractions would make Takumi crash the car.

'You're nuts,' Fumihiro said the minute Takumi entered the team's garage after having changed places with Keisuke.

'I'll never tire myself from saying this: you're crazy but you're one hell of a driver Takumi,' Ryosuke said and, to Takumi that was the best compliment his Team Manager could have ever paid him, 'now, go to the motorhome, take a shower and get changed, otherwise you'll end up catching a cold.'

'Yes,' Takumi said and, as he walked out of the box, he looked at the small monitor where he saw his team mate negotiating one of the circuit's most difficult corner. The way Keisuke was racing meant only one thing: it was over, the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had already won.

A few hours later, the whole team was still celebrating their amazing victory inside their box when the legendary Drift King entered the garage:

'Takahashi, I knew you'd be trouble from the first day I saw you at the Federation's building' Keiichi Tsuchiya said talking to Ryosuke, who for once, was either too stunned or too happy, or maybe both, to say anything at all.

'Yeah, we're not bad, are we?' Bunta said joining in the conversation. Keiichi shook his head and said:

'Bunta, don't even try to be modest, it just doesn't suit you at all…'

'Alright, they still have loads to learn…but I'll be patient…' he said looking so serious that everyone started laughing.

Takumi observed the scene as he was trying, and failing, to ignore Itsuki's attempt at describing, minute by minute, the way he'd seen the whole race.

It wasn't that Takumi wasn't happy that his team had won the race that he had made them win both drivers and constructor's GT300 championships, Takumi was ecstatic that he had been able to contribute to that astonishing feat, the only problem was that he was literally dying to leave the Suzuka circuit so he could join the person whom he really wanted to celebrate the victory with: his girlfriend Minami.

The singer was waiting for him at the ryokan where she had first asked him out because, even though they had been seeing each other for over six months, except the team and a few other people, no one else knew they were an item and both Minami and Takumi liked it better that way.

Seeing each other in secret was very hard, especially because ever since Minami had reassumed her singing career, with her mother acting as her temporary manager, they had trouble finding time so they could be together.

He saw as Ryosuke, very reluctantly, gave the order to the team to start packing up so they could leave the circuit.

'Ryosuke-san, are we going to be here for much longer?' Takumi asked his Team Manger after he had waited for, in his opinion, an eternity.

'No, don't worry, we're just packing up the last of the vans and then we'll be off,' Ryosuke answered perfectly aware of what his driver had in mind.

'Is there anything I can do?' Takumi asked.

'I think you've done more than enough today,' Ryosuke said patting him on the shoulder giving him the kind of smile that made Takumi feel all flustered.

'Ah,' he muttered as his Team Manager turned round to go to his wife who was calling him.

Takumi was observing the couple as Akiko said something to her husband that made him hug her in such an affectionate way that made Takumi walk away.

'Are you ready to go?' he heard his father ask him a few minutes later.

'Yeah,' Takumi answered happy to hear that they were finally moving out.

The whole team, plus Akiko, little Kyosuke and the gang from Akina arrived at the ryokan where they would celebrate their victory in private. Takumi literally jumped out of the Impreza startling his father so much that he almost opened his eyes.

'What a brat,' Bunta said shaking his head as he finished parking his car.

By the time they entered the hall, they saw Takumi hugging his girlfriend finally allowing himself to express how very happy he was. When Takumi finally separated himself from Minami, the girl took out a piece of plastic from one of the pockets of her jeans.

'Look!' she said showing a brand new driving license with a huge grin on her beautiful face.

'Wow! Well done!' Takumi said hugging her again.

'Yeah, now that I've got it, why don't you teach me how to drift?' Minami asked.

'What? No, no way. It's too dangerous,' Takumi said looking very serious.

'Is what? You do it all the time!' Minami protested.

'Yeah, but…'

'If he doesn't teach you then I will,' Kyoko said interrupting Takumi and earning herself a glare from both him and her fiancé Keisuke.

'What? Kyoko…' Takumi protested.

'Thanks!' Minami said passing her arm around Kyoko's. As she did so, she noticed something sparkling on Kyoko's left hand, 'Kyoko, is that…'

Kyoko nodded happily.

'Whoa! That's great! Congratulations!' Minami said hugging her friend then, turning to Keisuke, she said:

'About time you did it!'

Keisuke, not knowing what to say to that, turned to Takumi and looked at him pleadingly.

'Ah, no, I'm with her in this one…' Takumi said putting his hands up.

'Traitor,' Keisuke said pouting making everyone laugh.

As they all took their seats, and before the party could get out of control, Ryosuke got up and, looking around the room seeing loads of familiar faces, he said:

'I'm not going to make a long speech because I know you're gagging to uncork those bottles of champagne so, I'm just going to thank every one of you, whether you are a member of the team or not because I know that all of you have contributed, one way or another, towards this victory. From everyone in this room, there is one person I want to thank most especially because, quite literally, without her none of this would have happened: Akiko, thank you for everything you've done for me, for our family and for this team.'

It looked as though Ryouske had finished his speech when, changing his mind, he said:

'Akiko, can I tell them?'

Akiko looked stunned for an instant then, recovering, she nodded. By this point, everyone in the room was extremely curious to find out what in the heck was going on.

'My wife has just told me that, around springtime, we'll welcome a new addition to the family,' he said then, picking up one of the bottles from the icy bucket, he said:

'Now, let's celebrate!'

Several bottles of champagne were opened and people started toasting to numerous things:

'For the championship!' Kenta said.

'For Minami's driving license!' Takumi said smiling.

'For Kyoko and Keisuke's engagement!' the singer replied.

'Because I'm one lucky bastard,' Keisuke added looking at Kyoko adoringly.

'Because I'm one too,' Ryosuke said, also looking adoringly at his wife.

'So everything goes much better in my second pregnancy than in the first,' Akiko said replied lifting her juice-filled glass while Ryosuke nodded to that.

'Akiko, what are you going to do with your job?' Keisuke asked.

'Don't worry, I've asked your father about it and he said it's alright, he's getting used to managing everything and my father's finally fit enough to help for a few hours a day. So, for as long as I have a say, your brother still has a couple of years before he has to keep our end of the deal,' Akiko explained.

'I'll toast to that too, then!' Keisuke said happily.

'Me too,' Ryosuke said looking the happiest Keisuke had ever seen him.

'Hey Takumi,' Iketani said to Takumi who was listening to the chatter around him.

'Yeah?'

'Can you come with me for a minute?' he asked.

'Sure,' Takumi said looking at Minami who nodded then, getting up, Takumi followed his former workmate to a quieter corner of the room.

'I don't want to tell anybody else just yet because I haven't even told Mako,' Iketani whispered.

'What is it?' Takumi asked.

'I'm thinking of asking her to marry me. What do you think?'

Takumi was shocked to see that Iketani was asking him and not Kenji. After all, it was Kenji who was Iketani's best friend.

'I think it's a great idea,' Takumi finally replied.

'I'm glad you think so…'

'Iketani-senpai, why don't you ask Kenji's opinion too?' Takumi asked as an afterthought.

'Oh…it's just that…you know, he's still single and…' Iketani stammered.

'Alright, I get it,' Takumi said. Sometimes he had trouble remembering that Iketani was almost three years older than he was for, sometimes, both he and Kenji behaved in an extremely childish manner.

'Good, I better go before Mako starts getting suspicious: I want to surprise her you know,' Iketani said looking at his girlfriend who was happily chatting with her best friend Sayuki.

'Are you going to do it now?' Takumi asked.

'No, of course not…I'll take her out for dinner next Saturday and I'll propose to her then,' Iketani said.

'Alright, good luck,' Takumi said.

'Thanks,' Iketani said before walking away.

Takumi walked back to the table as Minami was putting her mobile phone back inside her bag.

'What's up?' he asked his girlfriend.

'Mariko's just called, she wanted to know where I had gone to when I vanished from the circuit and I've told her we're here and she's going to join us. I hope that's alright,' Minami said.

Mariko, who worked as a model, was Minami's best friend and, thankfully, Takumi didn't see her very often for, he thought, the girl seemed to simply hate him. Minami insisted that it was because Mariko, who was a couple of years older than Minami, had an older sister complex when it came to Minami. Takumi suspected that the model was just jealous because Minami had managed to get a boyfriend before she had.

She arrived a few minutes later and Minami got up so she could introduce her friend to those who didn't know her, basically everyone in the room except Takumi.

'And, this is Itsuki, Takumi's best friend,' Minami said talking to Mariko.

Itsuki remained completely mesmerised at the sight of a gorgeous, tall, and absolutely stunning girl. Takumi elbowed his friend so he would react.

'Ah…I…I…'

Mariko, looking very serious, stared at him for a bit then, her lips started curling to form a smile that led to a fit of laughter and Takumi was starting to get angry at her when she said:

'Minami, he's great! Why have you kept such a gem hidden from me? You're such a bad friend.'

Both Takumi and Itsuki couldn't believe their ears. Takumi was about to say something but Itsuki, lifting his head and inflating his chest so he would look bigger, not an easy feat when he had such a tall woman standing next to him, and said:

'Are you making fun of me?'

Mariko looked startled and, shaking her brown curls, she said:

'Absolutely not! I love the kind of guys who can make me laugh…'

Itsuki didn't know what to say to that.

'Let's leave them alone,' Minami whispered to Takumi seeing that Mariko and Itsuki had started a conversation during which Itsuki seemed to be telling Mariko all the sort of ridiculous things Itsuki had done in the past.

After the party had been on for several hours, Ryosuke decided that it was a good time for everyone to start heading to their rooms. Since he had known that people would drink quite a lot during the party, he had decided to rent out all the rooms in the ryokan for his team and their friends.

He went to join his wife in their room for she had retired a lot earlier to go and give Kyo-chan his evening meal and so she could get some rest too.

'Where is Itsuki?' Kenji asked looking for him around the slowly emptying room.

'I don't know,' Iketani replied, 'Maybe he's with Takumi somewhere…'

'No, I saw him and Mina-chan going to their room a few minutes ago,' Mako said.

'What about Mina-chan's friend? Did she leave?' Kenji asked.

'Now that you mention it: Itsuki and that girl seemed to be having a really good time together,' Iketani commented.

Everyone remained quiet for a bit then, widening his eyes in realisation, Kenji shouted:

'NOOO! NO WAY! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE_ I'M A LONELY DRIVER_ BULLSHIT!'

Iketani, his girlfriend Mako and Sayuki started laughing out loud then, just as Iketani and Mako started getting up to go to their room, Sayuki leant towards Kenji and whispered:

'It seems we're the only ones left…'

'I know, this is so pathetic…' Kenji complained.

'Is it?' Sayuki asked and the tone of voice she used made Kenji look at her. What he saw made his lips form a very small smile.

'Sayuki-chan,' Kenji started saying.

'I think it's time you were a bit less lonely, Kenji-kun…'

Kenji felt like he had suddenly won the lottery that night.

_To be concluded…_


	33. Epilogue

**Programmed Lives – Second Stage**

_Epilogue_

They had been very lucky because whereas the whole week had been pouring day and night, in the first Saturday of March the sun shined making the cherry trees show off their brand new pink blossoms in a way that made the whole esplanade leading to the church look like a picture for one of the postcards tourist sent whenever they visited Japan.

Not that Keisuke had even noticed. He had been too nervous on the way there and he was now too busy admiring the beauty of his wife-to-be as she entered the church with her father by her side.

He remembered his first meeting with her parents and, to be honest, he had never been any more eager to make a good impression with anyone in his life. Thankfully, both of them seemed to be just as good natured as their daughter and, even her father, had taken the news of their engagement in a very positive way.

Sure, it helped that he was an increasingly famous racer in Japan and that his family practically owned the three biggest hospitals in the Gunma prefecture. With those credentials, Kyoko's father seemed to overlook the spiky bleached hair that had become Keisuke's trademark.

In any case, as he saw Kyoko close up, he felt like the time had stopped and, for a wild moment, he really wished it was so.

'You look amazing,' he whispered to her. She blushed and smiled in her own, unique sweet way.

'Thanks,' she muttered.

The only hiccup of the ceremony was when fourteen months old Kyosuke dropped the little cushion carrying the wedding rings as he tried to give them to his uncle.

'Hey sweetie, don't worry,' Kyoko said caressing the head of an upset looking Kyo-chan and, as usual, her voice made him smile.

'He's in love with you,' Keisuke muttered at Kyoko.

'I can't help it if I'm this charming,' Kyoko said jokingly.

'Well, sorry mate, but she's taken,' Keisuke said to his nephew with a smile. Ryosuke finally came to get his son so the ceremony could continue.

An hour later, the now Mr and Mrs Keisuke Takahashi received their guests at the reception and after the usual speeches and the meal, it came the time for their first dance.

Minami got up from her chair and walked to the stage where the band was ready to play the first song. She gave a piece of paper and some instructions to the band's director and, taking the mike, she said:

'Kyoko, Keisuke, I know that you guys have received all sorts of presents and I know Takumi and I have already given you ours but, I found out you guys don't have a song to call your own so, I've decided to write one for you…now, if you please do me a favour.'

Keisuke got up and extended a hand towards his wife who picking it up, she followed him to the dance floor.

As the band started playing, Minami started singing a beautiful song that seemed to perfectly describe the newlyweds' relationship.

At the end of the song, the bride's weren't the only eyes who had got a bit shinier than usual.

'Thank you so much Minami, I don't know what to say,' she said hugging the singer as she stepped off the stage.

'Don't mention it,' Minami said shrugging.

'Now I definitely need to teach you how to drift,' Kyoko said.

'Nope, Takumi said he'll do it,' Minami said with a very wide grin.

'Yeah, you better get him to do it before the GT500 season starts or he'll say he's too busy with the races,' Kyoko advised and Minami nodded.

'What are you two plotting now?' Keisuke said approaching them followed by Takumi.

'Nothing,' the two of them said at the same time making it look even more suspicious.

'Keisuke, I don't know you but I really don't want to know,' Takumi said.

'You're such a smart boy, let's dance,' Minami said taking Takumi by his hand leaving him with absolutely no option but to obey.

Keisuke and Kyoko danced for one more song together, then they walked to where Ryosuke and Akiko were seating.

'Oh, I wish I could dance too,' Akiko said putting both hands on an extremely swollen tummy.

'You know what the doctor said,' Ryosuke said.

'I know, I know…'

'Are you sure you're okay?' Kyoko asked her now sister-in-law.

'Yeah, I think so,' Akiko replied, 'but when you're almost eight months pregnant, being okay it's such an abstract concept.'

'I still can't believe you're having another boy,' Keisuke commented.

'Yeah, that's just going to be weird,' Kyoko agreed.

'Weird?' Ryosuke asked not entirely sure he liked that.

'Well, think of this: in less than twenty years time, we're going to have another set of Takahashi brothers going around Gunma,' Kyoko explained.

'Oh gosh…' Akiko said.

'Indeed,' Kyoko said nodding.

'No…guys, I'm sorry…I don't know how to say this,' Akiko said and her voice began to grow shakier.

'What's wrong?' Ryosuke asked alarmed.

'Kyoko, it seems like the second of the new set of Takahashi brothers wants to come to the world right now,' Akiko said frowning as she started feeling the pain of the first contractions.

_See you next stage..._


End file.
